Love will come back
by rjwritergirl
Summary: No one is more surprised then Gibbs when he gets custody of Jenny's daughter Caitie, can he get past Kelly and Shannon to give this girl the family she needs? Loosely based on the song "Love will come back" by Chicago.
1. Chapter 1

**Chapter 1: **

Jenny Shepard gasped as she felt the contraction hit again. She was seriously rethinking her decision to go without pain killers while in labor. She pressed the button for her nurse and gritted her teeth as she breathed and tried to think of something else besides the pain.

"Yes Ms. Shepard?" a young nurse asked, coming in.

"Could I get a pain killer?" Jenny asked as the contraction ended and she was able to relax.

"The anesthesiologist is busy at the moment; I'll put your name on his list though."

"Do you know how long it'll be until he'll be in here?" Jenny asked.

"He's got a few patients he's got to see first. It should take him anywhere from 10 to 30 minutes," the nurse replied coolly.

Jenny nodded and took in a deep breath as she felt the contractions build again. She tried to remember to breathe, but the pain was intense - more intense than any injury she had ever received. Finding a spot on the ceiling, she focused on it and prayed for the doctor to show up soon.

It took nearly an hour before the anesthesiologist was able to get to Jenny's room.

"When can I get the pain killers?" she asked, then suddenly gripped the railings as another contraction hit. It felt like it took forever for the pain to fade, she could feel another one building again and she looked at the nurse.

"When can I get pain killers?" Jenny asked breathlessly. The nurse checked the monitor, then shook her head.

"If the contractions are back to back, then it's too late for pain killers, the only way for the pain to stop would be to give birth," the nurse sympathized. Jenny could feel tears falling as the contraction hit again.

"I WANT PAIN KILLERS!" Jenny screamed as another wave of pain gripped her in its clutches.

"It's too late!" the nurse said, waving the anesthesiologist out of the room.

"I WANT SOME DAMN PAIN KILLERS!" The only way for Jenny to ignore the pain was to scream through it. "DAMN YOU!" She started cursing the father of her child; it was his fault she was in this predicament.

"Quit the racket!" An older nurse ordered as she barged in. She grabbed the chart and flipped through it and then gave Jenny a look. "You opted for no drugs Ms. Shepard, suck it up."

"I CAN'T! IT WANTS TO COME OUT!" Jenny cried.

"That's the point darling," the older nurse responded. She dropped the chart back where it belonged and went to the other side of the bed.

"Oh I hate him! I'm going to kill him when I get a hold of him."

"That's just the pain talking…" the nurse tried to soothe Jenny while checking the progression. Pulling the sheet back, she patted Jenny's leg. "I think you can start pushing now."

"No, it's the desire to kill him," Jenny retorted, crying. "I HATE YOU!" Her words turned into a guttural scream as she bore down and pushed.

"Keep pushing!" the second nurse coached.

"I can't!" Jenny said.

"The head's out...hold off pushing during the next contraction."

"You just told me to push! Make up your mind!" Jenny shot back.

"Push now!"

Jenny bore down and pushed as hard as she could. Pain wracked her nervous system and sweat drenched her body, but she pushed as though her life depended on it.

"Okay we've got the shoulders," the nurse cheered on.

"Is it a boy or a girl?" Jenny asked.

"Can't tell; we're only to the shoulders."

"Well does it look like a boy or a girl?"

"It looks like shoulders; keep pushing until I tell you to stop."

"I'm dying; my insides are being ripped out!" Jenny leaned back to catch her breath. No amount of training had prepared her for this moment.

"Exactly. It's almost over; one more push and then the baby should be out."

One push later and the nurse proclaimed: "It's a girl!" They cut the cord and started cleaning her off.

"Why don't I hear my baby crying?" Jenny asked.

"She's acclimating, give her a minute," the older nurse comforted. Just then, as if on cue, the girl started to cry.

Finally, after the baby had been cleaned off, tested, weighed, and looked over by the doctor, she was handed to her waiting mother.

"Oh hello, gorgeous," Jenny's voice was a whisper as she gazed upon her baby.

"Have you decided on a name?" the nurse asked.

"I've got a few that I like," Jenny replied dreamily. "I've still got to find the name that fits her."

"Well, the paperwork doesn't need to be filled out until the baby is discharged, so you've got at least a day."

"No pressure," Jenny said sarcastically.

The baby looked up at her and grunted, as if trying to say "pay attention to me!"

"Oh and you've got your father's eyes," Jenny whispered to the baby. Jenny looked into her daughter's eyes, as she remembered a conversation she and her baby's father had had when they'd been together.

"_If I had another daughter I'd name her Caitlyn. What?" he'd asked when she'd smiled. _

"_I think it's pretty and it goes well with her sister's name."_

_Caitlyn? Should she use the full name? Or should she change it around and use another variation of the name?_

_Grabbing a pen and paper from the bag she'd brought to the hospital, she started scribbling on the paper, she wrote down every single variation of the name Caitlyn she could think of and a few she made up. One by one she narrowed down the list to three. Catherine, Cathleen and Cathlynn… Trying each name out she spoke it aloud and then looked to her daughter to see if her little girl looked like the name. Finally she had one._

"_Cathlynn Guinevere Jackson." She whispered, holding her daughter close._

_She sighed and looked at the birth certificate forms; she wanted to giver her daughter her last name. But she wasn't sure that she and Caitie's father had gotten out of Paris with their covers intact. So she hesitated to use either of their last names. If she couldn't give her daughter the last name of Shepard or Gibbs, she'd give her daughter the name of the man who had raised Jethro to be the man she'd fallen in love with._

_Holding her daughter close she looked at Caitie, who was looking up at her with her father's ice blue eyes. "Leroy Jethro Gibbs, you're a father," she whispered._


	2. Chapter 2

Here's chapter 2 of Love will come again, enjoy! Thank you to those who reviewed the first chapter!

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**Chapter 2: **

**_June 15th 2012_**

Leroy Jethro Gibbs stepped off the elevator and made his way to his desk.

"Boss, I got a message for you," Tony started. "Someone named Pam Harmon called; she'd like to set up a meeting with you."

"Don't know her; don't know why she'd be calling me," Gibbs said before sitting at his desk. "Why were you at my desk DiNozzo?"

"It sounded important boss, maybe you should call…" Tony trailed off as Gibbs gave him a look. "The phone was ringing; I felt it best to take a message so McRibs here could stop being distracted."

"I was ignoring it just fine Tony, you were the one who was distracted by the ringing." McGee corrected.

"I agree," Ziva concurred. "However, you were not even trying to concentrate on your work, were you Tony?"

"That's not the point, Boss had an important message and…" Tony started.

"DiNozzo, I have voice mail…" Gibbs started. There was an edge to his tone.

"Gibbs," Vance spoke up from the stairwell. "I'd like to speak with you."

Despite the three pairs of eyes focused on him, Gibbs got up and went to the Director's office.

"I hear that a lawyer is trying to get a hold of you," Vance started, once the door was closed.

"Not sure what you're talking about," Gibbs casually evaded.

"Pam Harmon," Vance dropped the name and waited for a reaction. None came. "We just finished talking; she needs to speak with you; said it's important." He sat down and tapped his finger on the desk. "I know this particular lawyer; won't give up until she gets what she wants. And what she wants is a meeting with you. Now. So, the sooner you can take care of this, the sooner we can put this behind us and get back on the case. Understood?"

Gibbs jaw tightened. "Are you giving me a direct order, Leon?"

"Sometimes you need one."

"My track record with lawyers isn't what you would call...pristine."

"All the more reason to get this one off your ass ASAP!"

Gibbs looked Leon in the eye for a long moment. Finally he got up and went back to his desk, he found the message that Tony had left on his desk and dialed the number on the paper.

"Harmon and Murrary. Pam Harmon's office." A secretary picked up the phone.

"This is Leroy Jethro Gibbs; I'd like to speak to Pam Harmon please."

"I'll transfer you directly," the woman said. There was a pause before another woman picked the phone up.

"This is Pam Harmon."

"This is Leroy Jethro Gibbs; you wanted to speak with me?"

"Yes, I'd like to set up a meeting with you. It appears there was a codicil in Ms. Virginia Shepard's will to be opened upon her mother, Elizabeth's death. You were mentioned, I'd like to meet up to fulfill the wishes of Ms. Shepard."

"You do realize that Jenny Shepard has been dead for nearly six years." It was not a question.

"I am well aware of when she passed, Agent Gibbs. But this concerns her mother. That is why I need to meet with you in private."

There was no way he was getting out of this. "All right," Gibbs said. "I'm free for lunch today…if that works for you."

"I work out of Baltimore, but I can come to you," Pam agreed. "How about we meet at The Breakfast Café in Norfolk in say…" she looked at her watch, "…an hour?"

"Sounds good to me." Gibbs hung up the receiver.

"Wow! Date with a lawyer - bet you haven't had one of those since ex-wife number three, huh boss?" DiNozzo joshed.

Gibbs turned to the younger agent, simply raising an eyebrow. DiNozzo suddenly found something to work on at his desk.

"Do you need for one of us to come along with you Gibbs?" Ziva offered.

"No thank you Ziva; I can take care of myself."

"I did not mean to inter that you couldn't…." she apologized.

"Infer, Ziva," Tony corrected.

Ziva looked confused. "That's what I said, is it not?"

Nearly an hour later, Gibbs left the Navy Yard and went to the café that the lawyer had spoken of.

He walked into the café, looking around for the lawyer, he'd recognize one anywhere.

"Special Agent Gibbs?" A voice made him turn.

"Yes?"

"Pam Harmon, we spoke on the phone."

"Nice to meet you."

"It's nice to meet you too." She motioned to a booth and they both sat down.

"What did you need to speak to me about?" he inquired without formality.

"There was a codicil in Ms. Jenny Shepard's will that was to be opened upon her mother's death," Mrs. Harmon explained.

"I heard that part earlier. How am I involved?"

She watched his body language: stoic, but tense. The news had hit a nerve. But she didn't have time to consider his feelings. "It mentions you."

Gibbs shrugged indifferently. "Whatever I've inherited. I don't want it."

"Well, this has been instructed upon her mother's death to be given to you." She handed over the envelope with the legal forms and papers.

"What, her house? Her car? What could Jenny give me now that she couldn't give me before or right after her death?"

"Your 13 year old daughter."

Gibbs raised an eyebrow. "Ms…." He trailed off as he tried to remember her name.

"Harmon," she finished with ice in her tone.

He snorted. Hard. "Ms. Harmon," he shook his head as he looked over the papers, "I think there's been a mistake; I never had a daughter with Jenny."

The lawyer pulled out more papers and a picture, placing them both in front of the agent. Glancing at the papers he looked more at the picture. It was clear that the girl was Jenny's daughter - they had the same hair, and smile. But there was something in her face that reminded Gibbs of someone close to him. His mother.

"When's her birthday?" Gibbs asked.

"April 28th 1999." The lawyer looked at him with a raised eyebrow.

Gibbs subtracted from April. The girl would have been conceived sometime in July. They were still in Paris at that time.

He grabbed the paperwork and looked over it. It was a copy of Jenny's will. On the last page there was an addendum that said that if her mother died before April 28th 2017 then Cathlynn Jackson was to go live with Leroy Jethro Gibbs, her father.

"I'll want a DNA test to be done," Gibbs said shortly. He was too well trained to let his feelings betray him through facial expressions.

"All right, but we will have to figure out what to do with the girl while it's being done."

"I don't really have the means to take care of her," he explained. "What are some other options?"

"Foster Care." The air was heavy with anticipation. Surely the girl had more then one option. When the woman didn't continue to speak he leaned back in his seat.

"Before I believe that she's my daughter, I want proof, like a DNA test." Gibbs repeated shortly.

Pam nodded. "I know of a good clinic that can do the test. I can set it up to happen as soon as possible." She grabbed a business cared from her purse. "This is their number. We can do this the easy way or the hard way, I think you know that the easy will benefit everyone in the end, even if she isn't your daughter."

Gibbs nodded again and looked up at her as she got up and began packing her things up. "When will you have the girl's DNA ready?" he asked.

"I can have Cathlynn ready today after school. Her last class gets out at 3:00."

Gibbs nodded. "I'll be there about 3."

Pam nodded and began gathering up her paperwork. By the time she had closed her briefcase, Gibbs had left the café.

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	3. Chapter 3

Here's chapter 3 of Love will come again, I hope you all enjoy! Thank you to those who reviewed the first two chapters!

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**Chapter 3:**

Gibbs got out of his car and walked into the lab where he was going to get the DNA test done. He just wanted to get this over with.

"Agent Gibbs," Ms. Harmon greeted, and he noticed she had a teenager with her. In person, the relation to Jenny was even more obvious. She smiled weakly at Gibbs and he nodded a silent hello to the girl. She had a look about her, like a girl who'd had to grow up too fast, and she desperately wanted to be a child again.

"Caitie, this is Agent Gibbs." Ms. Harmon said. Caitie looked up at him, wary.

"You're my biological father?" Caitie's voice was quiet.

"Maybe," Gibbs said. He could clearly see Jenny in the girl. Both Caitie and Jenny had the same hair and they had the same physical mannerisms. "What's Caitie short for?" He asked. "Caitlyn?"

"Cathlynn" the girl corrected. "Cathlynn Guinevere Jackson."

The girl's full name was like a slap to the face. Jenny's cover in Paris had been Guinevere. Cathlynn was a variation of Caitlyn, the name he'd wanted to use on his and Shannon's second daughter. And Jackson, that was his father's name. In a roundabout way, she'd given this girl a name that would mean something to him.

He forced himself to pay attention as he heard her talking. "Who am I going to go with after the test?"

"Me." Gibbs spoke quietly, his response surprising even himself. Both the girl and the lawyer looked at him in surprise. But the lawyer nodded in agreement.

"Okay," Caitie spoke just as quietly as he had.

They all walked into the lab and soon both Gibbs and Caitie had blood taken from them to do the test and they were leaving. They went out to the cars and Ms. Harmon opened her trunk where there was an extra backpack. "She's got some extra clothes in here."

"All right," Gibbs' said. He opened the back door to his car and Caitie got in, shoving both backpacks to the side as she slid in.

The ride back to DC was mostly silent and it was as they were passing the local Wal-Mart that Gibbs realized that he didn't have any food in the house. He pulled into the packing lot and found a slot. It would not do for him to let the girl starve.

* * *

"Something is up with Gibbs, McGee; I want to find out what it is." Abby Scioto was standing in front of McGee's desk.

"It's none of our business Abby." McGee said.

"What do you mean none of our business?" Abby asked "It's totally our business. If it affects Gibbs it affects us," she motioned to the separate team members, "indirectly."

"What makes you think something's wrong?" Ziva asked, abandoning the paperwork she'd been doing.

"He left for lunch with that lawyer and then when he came back he looked like he'd seen a ghost." Abby said. "It takes a lot to scare Gibbs."

"Well for all we know one of his ex-wives could be asking for more alimony." DiNozzo said.

"It's not that, I can tell." Abby said. "I can feel it in my gut."

Tony nodded. "Me, too," he admitted.

"See?" Abby explained to McGee. "Tony never gets worried about Gibbs. If Tony is worried then there has to be something horribly wrong. Gibbs is probably lying a ditch somewhere, we gotta find him!"

"McGee, see if you can find him." Ziva ordered. "Track him by his phone."

"I'm not going to go looking for him, he'll figure it out and then he'll be mad…..."

"I'd rather have him be mad than dead." Abby said.

"Me too." Ziva said.

McGee finally shook his head and pulled up something on his computer. "Fine, but if he asks who found him, I'm saying Tony did it."

Tony and Ziva got up and went to McGee's desk, Abby came around the back of his desk and they all looked over McGee's shoulders as the program tracked Gibbs' phone.

"1563 Kensington Ave." Tony read it off. "That's in Alexandria."

"What's he doing in Alexandria?" McGee asked. He typed some more and the name of the business popped up. They all stared at the screen in surprise, finally Tony spoke, saying what they were all thinking.

"Why is Boss at a DNA testing facility?"

* * *

Gibbs turned to Caitie as she unbuckled her seatbelt. "I need to get some groceries; if you need anything you can grab it."

"Okay." Caitie said. She looked up at him, "My mom and I used to make these really good cookies on Friday nights." It took Gibbs a moment to realize that it was Friday.

"You can get the ingredients," he told her. He could live with her using the oven tonight. They entered the store and both grabbed a cart before separating.

"Hey you," A voice made him turn. It was Dr. Ryan.

"Hi Doc." He smiled as he guided the cart towards the fruit.

"I didn't know you shopped at Wal-Mart," They fell into line and started looking at the apples together.

"I usually don't." Gibbs said as he put a few apples in a bag and then reached for the bananas, "I had to make a last minute stop."

"What for?" They walked down the fruit aisle, stopping a couple of times to grab some fruit.

"Groceries and such," Gibbs said, edging around the subject.

Dr. Ryan raised an eyebrow. "And such?" she asked her mouth quirking up in a half smile.

"Yeah, and such," Gibbs responded, they moved into the bread aisle

"You going to elaborate?" Dr. Ryan asked.

"Not in Wal-Mart," Gibbs said, grabbing a loaf of bread. He spoke shortly but not rudely, he just didn't want the Doc to find out about Caitie in Wal-Mart.

"Parker has a play date with a friend until three. I can leave him with a sitter after dinner."

"Can we meet up after nine?" Gibbs asked, he'd have to get Caitie to bed. Thirteen year olds went to bed at nine, right?

Doc Ryan gave him an unreadable look. "Sure," she said.

They separated and Gibbs went down a third aisle. He was grabbing a bag of chips (teenagers liked chips right?) when Caitie came up to him, she had a basket of things; it looked like an awful lot of items for homemade cookies but he didn't comment on it. The girl had been through a rough few years with both her mother and her grandmother dying. The least he could do for Jenny's baby was to let her make a batch or two of cookies.

They quickly finished the shopping and after Gibbs bought everything they went out to the car.

"Pam said you were an agent," Caitie said as he pulled out of the parking lot. "What kind of agent are you?"

"NCIS." Gibbs said, "It stands for…"

"Naval Criminal Investigative Service," Caitie interrupted. "Mom used to be the director you know."

"Yeah, I know," Gibbs said, soon they were pulling into the driveway of his house. "I don't have an extra bedroom, but you can take my room, I'll take the couch." Gibbs said. Caitie nodded and Gibbs led her up to his bedroom. "The bathroom is through there." he pointed "You can move my stuff around if you need room for your toiletries."

"Okay," Caitie said, she went into the bedroom that Gibbs had pointed to and set her bags down.

Gibbs went to go downstairs and she could hear him moving stuff around, and putting food away in the cupboards. Downstairs, Jethro put all the groceries away and then went to the basement. He needed a few moments away from the girl. The DNA test hadn't come back, but he knew. Caitie was his.

How could Jenny not have told him about his daughter? How had Jenny been able to work with him for so many years and not tell him? How could Jenny have kept from him, the only thing that would have made him happy?

Sure he wouldn't have been happy about the pregnancy at first, but having another daughter? He'd always wanted another daughter, a sister for Kelly and after Kelly and Shannon had died, he'd mourned the loss, of not only his daughter and wife, but for the future children he'd never have. And Jenny had taken it away from him. He'd talked to Jenny about it in Paris, about wanting a sister for Kelly; she had known he'd always wanted another daughter. And she hadn't told him about that little girl.

How could Jenny not have told him?

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	4. Chapter 4

_Here's chapter 4! I'd like to thank my new Beta CelticCrossings for betaing, she did a great job. Thank you to every one who has reviewed so far! I love receiving reviews!_

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**Chapter 4:**

Tony and Ziva locked eyes as Gibbs stepped out of the elevator the next morning and went to his desk. Both were wondering if Gibbs would tell them what was going on.

"Everything okay Boss?" Tony asked.

"Fine," Gibbs said shortly as he went through the files on his desk.

"You sure? Because if you need some help we'll be glad to…." Tony started.

"What kind of help do you think I need DiNozzo?"

Tony paused for a moment, obviously trying to come up with something.

Gibbs glanced at McGee and Ziva, they were both looking at their computers, clearly trying not to be drawn into the conversation.

"What's going on?" Gibbs asked.

"What do you mean Boss?" Tony asked.

A barely disguised cough coming from Ziva's desk caught his attention. "Ziva, what happened yesterday?"

Ziva looked at McGee who picked up his phone and dialed something.

"Ziver…." Gibbs drew the nickname out a little; he knew that if he was patient Ziva would tell him what he wanted to know.

"Abby, come up to the bridge." He heard McGee telling the forensic scientist.

"Coming!" Abby's loud voice bled through the phone.

"Why is Abby coming up here?" Gibbs asked, although he was asking his team members he still looked at Ziva. Each member of the team looked down at their desk, not saying anything. "What is going on?" Gibbs demanded.

"We could ask you the same thing." Ziva's mutter was so quiet Gibbs almost didn't hear it. He looked at her sharply and she continued to talk, her voice getting harsh.

"Yesterday, you went out for lunch, which you never do and you came back looking like you'd seen a ghost." Her tone softened now and she continued to speak. "It takes a lot to scare you Gibbs. We're worried."

"It's none of your business." Gibbs said, he wasn't trying to be rude but he didn't want the team to get attached to the girl if she wasn't going to be staying long. Oh who was he trying to kid? What he really didn't want was for him-self to get attached if the girl wasn't staying long.

The elevator beeped and Abby stepped out. "I want to know what was up with you yesterday Gibbs." Abby told him firmly, getting right to the point.

"I'm fine Abby; don't know what you're talking about."

"So yesterday you just went to a DNA testing facility in Alexandria for fun?" Abby raised an eyebrow.

Gibbs sighed heavily and looked from at each team member. They'd clearly tracked his phone; he mentally kicked himself for not leaving it on his desk.

"Boss, what is it?" Tony asked, looking concerned.

"Jenny left something to me in her will." Gibbs started. As much as he didn't want to, he figured he should tell them, they'd get it out of him anyway.

"Why wasn't it given to you before?" McGee asked, "she died 4 years ago right?"

Gibbs nodded, not letting emotion reach his face as McGee talked of Jenny's death. "There was a codicil in her will stating that it was to be given to me upon her mother's death."

"What did you inherit?" Ziva asked.

"Jenny's daughter, I was named as the girl's father. I was at the DNA testing facility yesterday to see if she's mine."

The four adults just stared at Gibbs for a moment before Tony burst into surprised laughter. "Yeah right, Boss, April fools is in April, not June."

In response, Gibbs looked at McGee, "Pull up Cathlynn Jackson," He told him. "She's a member of the JROTC." He mentioned something that Caitie had spoken of the night before while she'd been making cookies.

McGee typed something into the computer, and Caitie's picture showed up on the plasma. Abby suddenly turned and went to the elevator, jabbing the button the doors opened and she left. Gibbs watched her go, realizing that she was having difficulty hearing this news.

The remaining three team members looked at the picture in surprise. Gibbs moved from his desk and went to the elevator; he had a folder with him. "I'm going to go ask Ducky about the body we got yesterday," he said. "I want all of you to be working on the case when I get back." And with that he was gone from the bullpen.

Tony looked to Ziva. "Looks like Mom and Dad really were Mom and Dad."

* * *

"Hey Duck, what do you have for me?" Gibbs asked walking into autopsy.

"The poor girl was raped, brutally." Ducky spoke of the woman on the table in front of him.

"Something I don't know Duck." Gibbs suggested.

"He used a condom."

"He used a condom on all his victims." Gibbs reminded Ducky.

"He did not kill her."

"What?" This was a new piece of information

"This young lady died of a heart attack, not a beating."

"When did she have the heart attack?"

"After the rape," Ducky told Jethro, "If I had to guess, he raped her and then she had the heart attack he noticed, and left her there, correctly figuring she'd die before she got the chance to tell anyone about the rape." Ducky took in a breath "Last week if the team hadn't realized that all his victims had dog tags on them and put a bolo out, local LEO's might not have realized she raped by our perp."

Gibbs nodded silently as he walked around the table, looking at the victim in front of him.

"So is everything from yesterday settled?" Ducky asked.

"Duck…."

"I only ask because Abigail was worried." Ducky told him.

"I know."

"So?"

Gibbs turned to Palmer, he looked at both of the older men for a moment before realizing that they were waiting for him to leave autopsy.

"You know, I've gotta get something up to Abby, I'll take it up to her and….yeah." Palmer trailed off as he grabbed a piece of evidence; finally he simply turned and left.

Gibbs turned back to Ducky, not realizing that Ziva was coming out of the elevator as Palmer went in.

"I was at a DNA testing facility in Alexandria, Jenny had a codicil in her will that was to be opened on her mother's death."

"Yes?" Ducky prompted.

"Apparently she had a daughter." Ducky nodded and Gibbs looked at him. "Did you know?" He asked.

"When I did her autopsy, I could tell that she'd been pregnant and that she had carried the child full term. But in an autopsy it's difficult to tell when a woman gave birth. If I'd had to hazard a guess as to the child's age I would have guessed the child was about 10 at the time of the director's death."

"Nine." Gibbs corrected. "Caitie was nine."

"Since she never mentioned the child, I simply assumed that the baby had died." Ducky told him.

"Nope, she's been living with her grandmother. I got custody when her grandmother died."

"Do you think she's yours?"

"Yeah," Gibbs said. "I just have no idea what I'm going to do with her; I can't take care of a teenager."

Ducky gave him a look. "I think you could do anything you put your mind to Jethro."

"I'm not good with teenagers; I'll probably look for a family to take her in." Gibbs said. "Even if the test comes back that I am her biological father."

A scoff from the doorway made them both turn, Ziva was there. "I didn't think it was possible." She spoke only when she knew they were paying attention to her, her voice was thick with disgust and restrained anger.

"What?" Gibbs asked.

"I can't believe that you would have something in common with Eli David."

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	5. Chapter 5

Here's chapter 5 hope you all enjoy!

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Palmer entered Abby's lab to find the forensic tech working feverishly on something on her computer.

"Hey Abby, I need you to get information on the weapon that was used to subdue our victim downstairs." Palmer said. Abby jerkily motioned to the table so Palmer set the evidence down and held out the paper for her to sign. She quickly signed and then turned back to her computers.

Palmer turned to leave and passed McGee coming in.

"Hey Abby," McGee said.

"I'm fine McGee." Abby told him shortly.

"I just wanted to make sure." McGee said, he stood next to her at the computer.

"Of course I'm not fine McGee? Did you actually believe that?" Abby asked.

"No, I just figured if you didn't want to talk about it I couldn't make you." McGee told her.

"Did Gibbs know about her?" Abby asked, suddenly sounding like a little girl. "And now he's just saying he's finding out about her to make it look like Jenny's the bad guy?"

"Abby, you know Gibbs would never do that. He'd never treat Jenny's memory like that and you and I both know he'd never have abandoned Cathlynn had he known about her."

"But why didn't Jenny tell him about his daughter?"

"I don't know Abby, we may never know."

Abby turned back to her computer "I wish there was a way I could hack into the database in that facility to see the answer to the test." She changed the subject slightly.

"You know you can't Abby. Gibbs would get into trouble if you did that."

"I know I can't McGee, I just wish I could." Abby said.

"You don't need to; I already know how the test is going to come back." McGee said.

"How?" Abby asked, she was so surprised by McGee's statement that she stopped typing and looked at him.

McGee slid the keyboard from Abby and typed something in. The JROTC picture of Caitie popped up along with a second picture. The second picture was a newspaper photo of a younger girl who looked about 8 years old. Although one picture was in black and white and the other color and both pictures were of different quality, the girls in the pictures looked very similar.

"Why are you pulling up 2 pictures of Jenny's daughter McGee?" Abby asked, looking away from the pictures on her computer screen. It was like a bad train wreck, she didn't want to look, but she couldn't look away for very long.

McGee pointed to the JROTC picture. "That's Jenny's daughter Cathlynn."

"Yeah."

McGee pointed to the newspaper picture. "That's Kelly."

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Caitie Jackson sighed and looked out the window. She was bored. She hoped that Agent Gibbs would come back soon. Being alone was boring. Even if they didn't really talk, having another person there was less lonely. She looked at the picture she had of her mother and Gibbs, they were younger, her mom's hair was longer, curlier and they were eating at some restaurant.

Caitie could clearly see how she resembled her mother, they had the same hair and smile, but Gibbs' didn't look the least bit familiar, weren't you supposed to be able to look at your family and know "That's my family"?

She remembered that she'd brought with her one of the DVD's her mom had made for her and she went up to her room and grabbed it, going downstairs she went to the TV and started looking for a DVD player.

She couldn't find one and she didn't even see a cable box and she wondered if Agent Gibbs thought he was living in the 1950's.

"Thank goodness for my laptop." Caitie muttered. She got it out and plugged it in, after booting it up, she put the DVD in.

The menu came up and she scrolled past the clips listed.

_First day of high school_

_First time you have your period_

_When you miss me_

_When you meet Jethro_, clicking on it she waited for the video to pop up.

Her mother showed up on screen, "Hi Caitie Cat." She said, "If you're watching this you should have met your father…" there was a pause. "Jethro," Jenny sighed "If you turn the DVD over, he should find a video for him. If Jethro hasn't said much to you don't be offended, he's not talkative even with people he's known for years. It was a struggle to get him to talk to me about anything and we worked together for years."

Caitie smiled thinly; well it was good to know that she wasn't the reason for Agent Gibbs' silence.

The clip went on telling Caitie about Jethro.

"He loves building with his hands and there should be a boat in progress in the basement."

Caitie raised an eyebrow and looked at the screen. A boat in the basement? How did he get it out?

"I've wondered for years but never quite figured out how he gets it out." Caitie smiled and paused the DVD. She had to see the boat. Getting up she left her laptop in the living room and after looking around, she found the door to the basement. Going down the stairs she let her eyes adjust, it didn't look like any boat she'd seen before. _It must be only partly finished_. She decided.

Looking around in the basement, she noticed that except for an older TV in one corner, there wasn't a bit of technology in the entire room. "How does he build it?"

"Hand tools." A voice made Caitie turn. It was Agent Gibbs.

"It must take an awful long time to make one."

"On average, the last few boats took two and a half years."

"How many have you built?" Caitie asked, walking to the stairs.

"Not sure, don't keep count."

"What do you do with them?"

"I kept one, it's docked in the marina, and I donate the rest." There was a pause "And I gave one to my God-Daughter."

"I bet she appreciated that." Caitie said.

Gibbs shrugged and said "She was 18 months at the time. The gift was more for her mother. But I didn't want to hurt her mother's feelings and make it seem like I was being over protective, so I gave it to Amira."

Caitie smiled and walked up the stairs. "Why a boat?"

"Why not?"

They went upstairs and Gibbs went to the kitchen. "Do you want something in particular for Dinner?"

Caitie shrugged "Not really." She said. "Anything you fix will be fine. Hey," she asked closing the door to the basement "Do you have a DVD player?" Maybe she just hadn't seen it.

Gibbs shook his head. "I don't even have cable."

Caitie looked confused. "Why?" She asked.

"Don't need it; I'm usually at work or working on my boat."

Caitie nodded quietly and followed him into the kitchen.

"Can I go watch the rest of the movie that my mom made for me?" She asked. At his curious glance Caitie launched into an explanation. "Mom made me a few movies where the different clips are words of advice she has for me at different parts of my life. She made it after she got the ALS diagnosis."

"How long did she know?" There was a pause, "About the ALS."

"I think it was about 6 months." Caitie said, "Grandmother said that she found out just before Christmas but she died in a shooting in May."

Gibbs nodded and spoke "You can watch it if you want."

"Okay." She turned and then remembered something. "Oh, my mom said she made one for you too, if you want to watch it."

"I'll watch it later." Gibbs said shortly.

"Okay." Caitie said, surprised by the tone of his voice, she went into the living room and curled up with her laptop again.

Gibbs could see the girl plugging something into her lap top and then putting them on her ears. He couldn't hear anything from her laptop so he guessed that it was some sort of headphones.

He kept looking at her, though trying to figure out what he should do. He was no longer angry at Jenny for keeping Caitie from him; he knew that they hadn't gotten out of France with their covers intact. If she had told him about the girl then there was a chance that Caitie would have been killed, children meant nothing to terrorists, not when the children were the children of the enemy anyway.

If Kelly hadn't died would this little girl and Kelly get along? or would Kelly be appalled that he'd had another child with someone who wasn't Shannon, but if Shannon hadn't died Cathlynn wouldn't be here, he never would have cheated on her.

_But can I take care of a teenager? _He thought. In the course of an investigation earlier in the year he'd come across a family that had been preparing to be foster parents to teenagers, maybe they would be willing to help out.

Sighing he shook his head, if the DNA test came back that she wasn't his, the decision would be very easy, until he got the results though, what was the use of obsessing over this?

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	6. Chapter 6

Here's chapter 6 I hope you all enjoy! just so you know, it may be a while before I'm able to add on again. Thank you to those who have reviewed so far! I'm not always able to answer the reviews but I do appreciate them.

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**Chapter 6:**

Caitie looked up from her laptop as Agent Gibbs came into the living room. "Do you like greasy Pizza?"

Caitie raised an eyebrow, "is there another kind worth having?"

"Let's go get some, I know of a really good place that makes greasy pizza."

Caitie smiled and clicked a few things on her laptop, "Can I go get ready first?"

Gibbs nodded "Yeah." He said, wondering what she needed to do to get ready, a quick glance confirmed she wasn't naked or in pajamas and her hair didn't look horrible. What did she need to do?

Caitie closed her laptop. "I'll be ready in a few minutes."

Gibbs nodded "Okay."

Caitie went up to the bathroom and came down a few minutes later, her hair in a different hairstyle and she had on a different t-shirt.

"Do you happen to have a library card?" Caitie asked.

"Can't remember haven't been there in a few years, why?"

"I don't have a lot of books with me, and I get bored." Caitie said. "Can we go to the library? I can only play Wedding Street and listen to One Direction for so long."

"Wedding Street, one Direction?"

"Facebook game and a boy band." Caitie clarified.

"Like New Kids on the Block?" Gibbs asked, remembering a band that Shannon and Kelly had liked to listen to.

Caitie raised an eyebrow. "Maybe." She said, "I haven't heard of them."

Gibbs shrugged, and they left the house, as they were going to the car, Gibbs asked "Did your grandma ever let you sit in the front passenger seat?"

"No, she was worried I'd die in an accident." Jethro could clearly hear they eye rolling in the teen's voice. "I am old enough though, the law is a kid has to be 12 to sit in the front."

"You can sit in the front passenger seat if you want; it feels like I'm your chauffer when you sit in the back."

Caitie grinned and got into the front with the agent. "Do you have a VCR or DVD player?" She asked as Gibbs started the car.

"Down in the basement, why?"

Caitie rolled her eyes as she realized the basement had been the one place she hadn't looked.

"I have a Movie I'd like to watch."

Gibbs shrugged "I don't care if you use it just don't mess with the tools in the basement."

"Okay."

"What movie did you want to watch?" The question came a few minutes later, clearly Gibbs was trying to be polite and carry on a conversation.

"Sense and Sensibility, it's my favorite." Gibbs' heart clenched as Caitie kept speaking. "It was Mom's favorite too."

"Yeah, I know."

Caitie seemed to be hesitating and Gibbs glanced at her, then back to the road.

"How long were you together?" Caitie finally got the nerve to ask when they had been on the road for about fifteen minutes.

"I met your Mom through work in June of 1996." He said quietly, "We broke up in September of 1998."

"Why'd you break up?"

Gibbs took a moment to think of a way to word his response so he didn't paint Jenny in a bad light. Yes, she'd been the one who'd left, she'd been the one to write the "Dear John" letter but he wanted to make sure that Jenny wasn't painted as the bad guy. Even he knew you didn't talk badly about a kid's dead mom. "We were going in different directions, with our jobs." Gibbs finally spoke. "She wanted a promotion and I wanted to stay in the field."

Caitie nodded again, "That's kind of what she said." Her voice was quiet.

Gibbs didn't answer as he was pulling into the parking lot of the pizza place.

"What kind of Pizza do you want?" He asked as they got out and walked across the parking lot.

"I want to feel the grease and cheese clogging up my arteries just by looking at the pizza." Caitie said instantly, looking up at him. There was nearly a foot in height difference between the two of them and she had to strain to look up at him.

Gibbs looked at her with a raised eyebrow.

"What?" Caitie asked.

Gibbs shook his head and smiled "You sound like your Mother,"

Caitie stopped in the middle of the lot, looking at him in surprise, it took a few moments for Gibbs to realize she had stopped and he turned, ignoring the stare she was sending him. Gibbs grabbed her elbow; dragging her a few steps until she started walking on her own again and up onto the sidewalk.

"What is it?" He asked.

"Mom was right." She said quietly, although Gibbs was willing to bet money on the fact that she had been about to say something else. "You have a nice smile." _More like we have the same smile_. Caitie corrected herself; Mom had always said that they'd had the same smiles.

"What did she tell you about me?"

"Not much," she lied, it was easier to say she didn't know a lot about him and not get attached to him. "But then I never really asked any questions." There was a pause. "She had this picture of the two of you, it was taken at some restaurant, everything in the background was French, you guys worked in Paris right?"

"Yeah," Gibbs said, he turned and went into the pizza place with Caitie following him.

"Boss!" a man who looked quite a bit younger then Gibbs came up to them.

"Hey DiNozzo," Gibbs spoke shortly, but there was recognition in his voice and Caitie could tell that although Gibbs didn't like the interruption that this DiNozzo guy was okay.

"Hey, is this Cathlynn?" DiNozzo asked, seeing Caitie.

"I prefer Caitie" she politely corrected. "It's a pleasure to meet you sir."

"Sir is my father, call me Tony."

Caitie nodded "All right, Tony." She said.

"Hey," Tony turned around now "Ziva! Come'ere!"

A tall dark haired woman got up from one of the booths and made her way over to them.

"Hello Gibbs, would you like to join us? I believe Abby is on her way as well." The woman spoke with an accent that sounded familiar but Caitie couldn't place.

"This is Caitie." Tony made the introduction before Caitie or Gibbs could.

"Hello Caitie," the woman sounded kind of stiff and Caitie smiled, trying to put the woman at ease.

"It's nice to meet you Ziva." She said politely.

Ziva stared at the girl and Caitie stared right back, she wasn't sure why Ziva was staring but the woman didn't scare her.

"You've both invited to stay and have drinks and a ginger ale for Caitie," Tony said.

"We just stopped by to grab the heart attack special." Gibbs said, "Maybe another time."

_Maybe another time? _Did that mean that she was staying no matter how the test came back? Caitie wondered. Pam had explained the will had said that she was supposed to go to Gibbs after her grandmother's death but that Gibbs didn't necessarily _have_ to take her in. Caitie thought it was a good sign that he'd taken her in while the test was being done, but if the test came back negative was she going to have to go into Foster Care? Or would Gibbs let her stay anyway?

Caitie was so lost in her thoughts that before she knew it, their order was ready and they were leaving. As they walked back to Gibbs' car Caitie wondered what her life would have been like if Gibbs' had wanted to stay back when her mom had gotten pregnant.

She decided it was like the Katy Perry song: _In another life, I would make you stay, so I don't have to say, you were the one that got away_. Caitie paused for a moment as she got into the truck. Then she corrected herself. _In another life Mom would make you stay, so I don't have to say you were the Dad that got away._

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	7. Chapter 7

**Here's chapter 7! Sorry it took so long to get this up, work and school have kept me busy. :) Sorry for the shortness of this chapter, I tried to combine this with the next chapter, it just didn't work out that way, so I made it super short. Sorry again. Hopefully chapter 8 will be longer.**

**I'd like to thank Celtic Crossings for editing, she's a great beta!**

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Gibbs woke early Wednesday morning, He'd had Caitie in his home for nearly a week and the results of the DNA test were supposed to come back today. He still hadn't made a decision. He got up and started making breakfast, Caitie usually didn't get up at the same time he did but he didn't like to leave her to make her own breakfast, she was just a kid and it was summer time, she should spend the day having fun.

Which reminded him, Caitie had found out the night before that the local library was within walking distance and had asked again if he had a library card she could borrow. As the eggs cooked, he pulled his wallet out and finally located the old card, tossing it on the counter he wrote a quick note that said he hadn't used it in a while and it might not be usable. Then he pulled the smallest bill he had in his wallet and placing it under the card he finished the note with; "if you need it and they need payment for a guest card."

Then he finished making breakfast and he left for work, beginning work immediately he went down to Autopsy to see what Ducky had on the body they'd gotten the night before.

But instead of talking about the dead Marine in front of them, Ducky seemed more interested in talking about the girl.

"The results come back today don't they?"

"Yeah," Gibbs said shortly, he wanted to get to work.

"Have you decided what to do?"

"Duck…."

"Don't ignore this Jethro; you need to make a decision tonight, if only to give that poor girl some sense of stability. Her world has been turned upside down, more then once."

"You think I don't know I need to make a decision?" Gibbs asked, "I've known that I need to make a decision. Every time I go home, she's there, every time I open the door she looks up and I remember Jenny, every time she says something, I remember Kelly. Every time Duck..." There was a long pause. "I hate to say this Duck, but I don't know if I can go through that every day until she goes to college."

"You don't feel you can raise her." It came out flat.

"I can't raise her, but I can't place her for adoption either." Gibbs said.

Ducky looked at Gibbs for a moment before speaking. "Either piss or get off the pot Jethro. You can't have it both ways." And with that, he changed the subject to the victim in front of them.

The day passed slowly, the entire team seemed to fight more than usual, they didn't make any progress on the case they were working on and he kept looking at the clock, hoping that more time had passed.

Finally, just before five in the evening, a delivery man came into the office. "Special Agent Leroy Jethro Gibbs?" He asked, Tony and Ziva both pointed in his direction. Gibbs could see that the envelope being delivered was from the DNA testing facility and he quickly signed for it and put the envelope on his desk.

Gathering up everything he left the office. Getting home in record time, he went to the basement quickly. Setting the still closed envelope on his workbench he grabbed a glass and filled it with bourbon. Staring at the envelope he thought about the past week. He'd loved Jenny, really loved her. And he thought she'd loved him too. But she hadn't told him about the most important thing in her life. He'd told her about Kelly; even if Caitie wasn't his Jenny had kept quiet about Caitie.

He didn't fault her for that; he knew what it was like to try and protect the daughter you loved more than anything. But since Jenny had kept quiet about Caitie he was still kind of surprised about the news.

He restlessly walked around his boat for a moment, coming around to his workbench again, he brought the glass to his lips and drank the entire thing in one swallow, and then he set the empty glass on his workbench and ripped open the envelope. Reading through it quickly it confirmed what he'd already known. Caitie was his.

Throwing the paperwork onto the workbench again he glanced around the basement, his eyes fell onto the TV in the corner, a VHS container was on it, open. He went to it and picked it up, turning it over; he saw the title, Sense and Sensibility. His heart clenched. Jenny's favorite. He vaguely remembered buying the VHS for her. He opened the flap and saw his handwriting "_Happy birthday_," was all he'd written on the inside.

Setting it down, he started up the stairs. "Cathlynn." He called her by her full name; he couldn't call her by the nickname Jenny had given her, not yet. "Get ready to go; we're going to the store."

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	8. Chapter 8

**Here's chapter 8! Sorry it's so short but I know Chapter 9 is longer. Also, ****I'd like to thank Celtic Crossings for editing, she's a great beta!**

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Caitie looked up as Agent Gibbs came up from the basement. "What'd you say?" she asked.

"Get ready to go to the store." He told her.

"Where are we going?"

"The store," Gibbs said again, as if stating the obvious.

"What store?"

"Sears."

"Did the test results come back?" Caitie asked, putting her book down.

"Yeah, they did." The two of them looked at each other for a long moment. "We're getting stuff for your room." He told her, "Go get ready to go to the store."

"Pam told me to call her if I stayed here." Caitie said, "So she can bring my stuff by."

"Okay." Gibbs said, "You can call her then we'll go to the store."

"Okay." Caitie pulled out her cell phone and called a number, waiting for someone to answer, she finally spoke. "Hi Pam, its Caitie…..I'm staying here at Agent Gibbs', so could you arrange to bring my stuff by? ...Yeah I'll be here tomorrow," now Caitie spoke to Gibbs. "Are you okay with Pam's son bringing my stuff over tomorrow?"

"I'm okay with that." Gibbs said.

"Yeah that's okay." Caitie turned back to her conversation with Pam.

Gibbs' cell phone rang and he answered it. It was Vance. "I hear the test came back today."

"Yeah, Leon, I'm going to need to take a day or two, help her get a little more settled in."

"I was just about to say that I didn't want to see you in the office until Monday morning."

"Will do Leon, DiNozzo can handle the team for the rest of the week."

"I know." Vance said. Both men hung up and Gibbs turned to Jenny's daughter.

"You ready?" He asked.

"Yeah," she said, getting up. As they walked out to the truck, Gibbs called DiNozzo.

"Hey Boss."

"DiNozzo, you're in charge of the team for the rest of the week, don't abuse it."

"I won't." DiNozzo started to say something else but Gibbs hung up and slipped the phone into his pocket.

After driving to the local Sears, Caitie grabbed a cart. "Is there a budget for the stuff we'll be getting?"

"No, we need to get you furniture, there's no budget." Gibbs said.

"What room will I be in?" Caitie asked, "There are three rooms upstairs."

"The storage room, it may take a couple of days to clear out and set up though. You should be in there by the weekend."

"Okay." Going through the furniture section, Caitie picked out a dresser, and a couple of book shelves. "I've got a lot of books." She said.

Gibbs nodded, "I'm not surprised, your mother loved to read."

"She read to me every night she was home in time to put me to bed." Caitie remembered. "And she made tapes of herself reading books so when she wasn't home she could still read to me."

Gibbs nodded; he'd done the same thing for Kelly to listen to while he'd been deployed.

"What school am I going to go to?" Caitie asked.

"I'll look at schools and find one."

"I heard there's a really good one here in DC. It's actually another campus for the school I attended in Baltimore."

"What school?"

"Weatherly Academy, it goes from Kindergarten through 12th grade. I've got a full scholarship for 8th grade."

"You're going into the 8th grade?"

"Yeah," Caitie said she pointed out a bedside table she couldn't reach and Gibbs grabbed it and stuck it into the cart.

* * *

As Gibbs and Caitie left the store, they didn't see the man in the SUV across the parking lot taking pictures of them. Then, plugging a cord into the camera and into a laptop in the seat next to him, he tapped a few keys and the pictures were transferred.

He dialed a phone number "Those pictures good enough for you?" He asked once the woman had answered.

"Much better than last weeks," the woman responded.

"Well it's not my fault she's holed herself into that house."

"So Jethro got custody?"

"The girl's grandmother died last week, she stayed with some lawyer for a few days until Gibbs took her in. Looks like she's there to stay, they bought furniture."

"Good, Caitie needs some stability in her life." And with that the call ended.

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_Please Review!_


	9. Chapter 9

Here's the next chapter! Thank you to all those who have reviewed so far, I try to answer each review but if I didn't, I'm sorry. I really do appreciate them. Thank you to Celtic Crossings who beta's this story! :)

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On the way home, Gibbs dropped Caitie off at the library; she'd asked to be dropped off so she could check out some more books. Apparently she'd nearly read through all the books she'd checked out earlier in the week.

Gibbs was grateful that she'd requested it, the storage room needed to be cleared out and he didn't want Caitie to mess with any of Kelly's stuff. He doubted that the girl would ruin anything, but it was still hard to talk about Kelly and he didn't want to answer any questions, not now anyway.

He brought all the furniture into the house and then went upstairs. The storage room wasn't that messy, there were just a few old things of Shannon's and Kelly's that he needed to move. First, he moved all of Kelly's items into her old room. Closing the door gently he turned back to the things of Shannon's. The elliptical machine would be by far, the hardest to move, and where would he put it? He knew there was no room in his bedroom and he finally decided to simply drag it out into the living room, shove it up against a wall and figure it out later.

There was noise downstairs and Gibbs went to the stairs to see what it was, Tony, Ziva, Abby and McGee were down stairs, they each had a couple of shopping bags with them.

"Gibbs! We came by to give Caitie some stuff." Abby said.

"She's at the library right now but you can unload the bags in the kitchen. McGee, DiNozzo; you can help me move something out of the storage room."

"Yes Boss." Both agents set their bags down and moved upstairs quickly.

With DiNozzo's and McGee's help, Gibbs soon had the storage room cleared out and all the furniture was being moved upstairs so Gibbs could build it. Normally he wouldn't have bought furniture from a store and he would have made the things Caitie needed but he also knew that Caitie needed places to put her things, he didn't have the time to make from scratch the furniture she needed.

He could faintly hear Abby and Ziva moving around in the kitchen as he started building the bedstead, they were supposed to be getting the box spring and mattress on Friday and he wanted to make sure that the bedstead was built. Ignoring the instructions he simply started building it but was only about half done when Caitie knocked on the door. "Dinner's ready." She said.

Everyone went down stairs and Gibbs could smell that Ziva, Abby and Caitie had made breakfast for dinner. "Abby made chocolate chip pancakes, blueberry pancakes and regular pancakes." Caitie announced.

"Smells great Abby," McGee said and the rest of them murmured in agreement.

They all sat down and started eating, about half way through his first stack of pancakes though, Gibbs heard it. A bark, it sounded like it was coming from the basement. Ignoring it, he kept eating, then it happened again. Ziva, Abby and Caitie all looked at each other and then put food in their mouths, clearly trying to ignore it.

"What's that?" Gibbs asked, Caitie motioned to her mouth and kept chewing. Finally, Gibbs got up and went to the basement door. He opened it and the fattest dog he'd ever seen rolled out. Barking happily, it bounded over to Caitie, panting and whining as it smelled the sausage.

"He followed me home from the library. I brought him in because it was so hot outside." Caitie explained, "I thought he'd sleep through dinner and then I could put him outside again."

"You can keep him until the heat breaks." Gibbs said, he knew it had been hot and the girl was like Jenny in that she'd never been able to say no to a stray dog.

Caitie smiled and slipped the dog a sausage. Dinner continued and soon, Gibbs was going back upstairs to finish building as much of the furniture as he could before Caitie would go to bed.

Even with DiNozzo and McGee's 'help' he finished the bedstead and most of the dresser before Caitie stuck her head in. "Is it okay if Castle sleeps on the bed?" She asked.

"Castle?"

"The dog."

Gibbs nodded and turned to McGee and DiNozzo, "both of you go home and get some sleep." He all but ordered.

"Yes Boss." Both men said as one.

Gibbs left his tools in the storage room and glanced into his bedroom as he walked by, Caitie was lying on his bed an arm wrapped around the dog, sleeping peacefully.

"I'm never going to be able to get rid of that dog." Gibbs said, remembering Kelly and the stray dog she'd taken in.

"This surprises you?" Ziva asked. "You took Tony in all those years ago."

"I will have you know Ziva," Tony began, "that I am the purebred dog of the bunch, it's you and McProbie that are the strays."

"Yeah and I've had better luck getting them to do what I want." Gibbs shot back, but before anyone else could answer, Abby came up the stairs.

"Gibbs?" Abby's voice made him turn.

"Yeah Abs?"

"The kitchen is clean and the dishes are done."

Gibbs nodded "Thanks Abs."

"I brought some junk food for Caitie; I figured that you wouldn't have much in the house. Let her eat it, she's just a kid, don't expect her to act like an adult."

"Okay Abs." Gibbs said.

"And I don't want to see you in the office until Monday morning. Vance made me promise that I'd get a promise out of you that you wouldn't come in until Monday."

"I promise." Gibbs told the younger woman.

It took nearly half an hour more, but the rest of his team left and he was left alone with Caitie and the dog.

He tried to go to sleep, but about midnight he realized that he wasn't getting to sleep anytime soon. Grabbing the night table from Caitie's soon-to-be room he took it down to the basement and started putting it together. If he couldn't sleep the least he could do was make sure the girl had furniture to put her stuff in tomorrow when everything was delivered.

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The next morning, Gibbs made breakfast, the smell woke Caitie up and she came down the stairs, her hair messed up.

"Pam said her son would be by about 9." She yawned as she grabbed a glass and poured some orange juice into it.

Gibbs glanced at the time. 7:30, He would have the dresser and one of the bookshelves done by the time he came over.

"I've gotta finish building the furniture that we bought, stay down stairs until I'm done, then we can move stuff around to where you want it." Gibbs told her.

Caitie nodded. "Okay, I'll just play games on my computer until he gets here."

Gibbs nodded as well, "That computer stays downstairs by the way; I don't want you to have it upstairs." He'd read somewhere that it was safer to have any computer in a public room.

Caitie shrugged "Okay." She said, "Grandmother had the same rule that my computer had to be in a common family room. I've got a desk that I think would fit right there, between the stairs and the kitchen wall." Caitie vaguely pointed to where she was talking about. "We might need to get a chair for it though."

Gibbs nodded and went upstairs to finish building the furniture.

It took nearly 4 more hours, but Gibbs finally went downstairs, finished with building the pieces of furniture.

Boxes littered the front hall and Gibbs could see that the living room had several pillars of boxes stacked up.

He turned to see Caitie had already put her computer on the desk that, had in fact fit where she'd hoped. A box was open beside it and she unpacked what looked like school supplies and put it all into the drawers.

"I'm done building everything." He said, "Finish unpacking that box and then come up and decide where you want your furniture."

Caitie nodded and turned back to the desk. Caitie soon finished and joined him upstairs. "The bed is fine where it is." She said. But I'd like the book shelves to be at different parts of the room, one by my bed, on the other side of the bedside table." She said, "That way I can get a book to read if its bed time but I'm not tired." Caitie muttered more to herself then to Gibbs. Soon though, they were both moving the furniture around and the room was the way Caitie wanted it.

"Do you like Chinese?" Gibbs asked.

Caitie nodded Gibbs kept speaking. "I know of a good all you can eat Chinese Buffett."

Caitie nodded and they left, the drive to the buffet only took a few minutes and Caitie hopped out, eager to eat lunch.

The meal was long, partly because Caitie went back for several helpings and partly because Gibbs didn't want to go back to the house. He didn't mind having Caitie there; while it was difficult it got easier every day. Somehow, deep down he knew he'd always keep Jenny's daughter, even if she hadn't been his. But having Caitie there made him remember what the house had been like when Kelly and Shannon had lived there, it made the house more alive.

It wasn't that he didn't love Caitie, because on a deep level, he did. It was just…new, this love. He wasn't used to it.


	10. Chapter 10

**Here's chapter 10! thank again to my reviewers and to Celtic Crossings for betaing!**

* * *

The 10th of September dawned bright. Waking before her alarm went off, Caitie got up early. She wanted to make sure she looked good for her first day of school. After taking a quick shower she went downstairs for breakfast. Slipping into her seat she grabbed the gallon of milk and poured herself some. Gibbs stopped and sniffed the air, "are you wearing perfume?" He asked.

"When I took my shower I used some soapy stuff that Mom had left over at Grandmother's house." Caitie said, shrugging. "Grandmother threw it all out actually a few weeks after Mom died. But before she did that, I was able to get the names of the products down. When we were at the mall last week getting my uniform I snuck into the store and bought some." She purposely left out that she'd had to go into Victoria's Secret to buy the soap and lotion. He didn't need to know about that, or about the bra's she'd bought.

"Oh yeah," Gibbs remembered that she'd snuck off while the uniform store had been getting their order ready.

Breakfast finished too soon and as they were on their way out to the car Gibbs took a closer look at her face. "Are you wearing make up?"

"Just clear lip-gloss and some clear mascara, Mom said I wasn't allowed to wear real makeup until I was sixteen." Caitie said. She looked up at him hopefully. "Do you have a different rule about it?" she asked.

Gibbs shook his head, "Nope." he said. While he would have preferred that Caitie wait until she was 18 to wear makeup he knew that teenagers rebelled and frankly, the makeup battle wasn't worth the energy it would take to fight her on it. Sixteen seemed like a good compromise. It suddenly struck Gibbs that Caitie was growing up. He knew that supposedly, Caitie looked a lot like him, but whenever he looked at her, he could only see Jenny. He fully expected to have to keep boys at bay even this early in Caitie's life.

The drive to school was quiet and as Gibbs pulled up into a line of cars less then a block from the school he turned to Caitie. "You have everything?"

"Yeah," Caitie said, she fidgeted in her uniform, soothing the skirt down past her knees, Gibbs didn't like how much the skirt rode up. But, according to the uniform catalog he'd looked at at the mall, there had been several hem options to choose from and Gibbs had been about to simply order the longest length when Caitie had done it for him. The teen then picked up her backpack as Gibbs pulled up in front of the school.

"You sure you don't need for me to come in with you?" He asked, surprised at his protectiveness.

"I'm sure." Caitie said, "I found all my classes during the new student orientation meeting last week. I know where they are."

"Okay, remember to only call my cell phone in case of an emergency and by emergency I mean …"

"A terrorist attack," Caitie finished Gibbs' sentence. "I know, I'll keep my cell phone in my locker and I won't let anyone see the combination."

"Good." Gibbs said, he tried to think of something else to say but could only think of one other thing to say. "Have a good day at school." The words sounded foreign to him, it had been so long since he'd said them.

"I'll try." Caitie said. She got out of the truck and closed the door.

"Don't get into any trouble" Gibbs called through the open window.

"I won't." Caitie promised. She entered the school, unaware of the man across the street taking pictures of her again.

* * *

The man across the street again transferred pictures and called the same number again.

"Oh, I like her hair." The woman on the other end said quietly.

"She's going into the 8th grade." He said.

"I know what grade she's going into." The woman said shortly. "I know her better then you do."

"If you know her so well how come you're making me follow her?" The man asked testily.

The woman ignored the comment. "Is she still outside the school?"

"Nope, she's gone inside." But he still took a few pictures of the truck that was still parked in front of the school. "Her dad's staring at the front doors though." Then he sent the pictures of Gibbs in the truck.

He could hear the smile in the woman's voice. "I knew Jethro would fall in love with her."

"So am I ever going to find out why I have to take pictures of this particular family?" the man asked, more out of a desire to keep a conversation going then any real desire to know who he was taking pictures of.

The woman's voice was flat. "Most of the money I'm paying you, buys your silence, and if you don't like how much you're getting, I'm sure that I could find someone else to do this for me." And with that, she hung up.

* * *

Across the street, Gibbs finally started up the car again. This wasn't the first time he'd seen this man taking pictures of Caitie. He knew that there were plenty of people in DC under surveillance of one kind or another, seeing the same man twice was a coincidence but three times? It was time to call in the team. The car he saw was different then the last car he'd seen, but the man inside looked the same. The same dark hat, sunglasses and dark suit. Jethro hadn't been able to find any distinguishing marks on the man which was going to make I.D.'ing him difficult. As the man moved in the car, he could see a dark mark on his wrist. A tattoo maybe? It was probably just a watch, but Gibbs made a mental note of it anyway and turned the truck back on. It was time he talked with Abby, see if there was a way he could ID this guy. The last thing he wanted was for someone to come after his Cathlynn.

* * *

_Please review!_


	11. Chapter 11

**_Here's chapter 11! Thanks for the reviews! And I'd like to thank CelticCrossings, my beta, she always does a great job. :)_**

**_Happy Season Premier! (tomorrow technically) Best birthday present ever, as my birthday is tomorrow as well. :)_**

* * *

Caitie waited outside her school; the day was over and she was waiting for Gibbs to come and pick her up. Looking across the street, she noticed a car still there; it had been there when she'd been at lunch.

Bored, she rifled through her backpack and came up with her cell phone, flipping it open she realized the battery was dead. Hopping down from the planter she was sitting on she walked to the car, she could see a figure inside and they were the only person she could see, she needed to know the time.

After she knocked lightly, the man turned and rolled the window down. "Yes?" He asked.

"Could you tell me the time?" Caitie asked she held up the cell phone. "My battery died." She shrugged, helpless.

"5:15," the man said.

"Thank you." Caitie said, she turned to cross the street again and wait for Gibbs but noticed that Gibbs had already pulled into the parking lot.

He was getting out and she called across the street. "Hey!" he walked towards her, and motioned for her to get into the truck.

"Get in the truck." His voice was curt and he walked right past her, in the direction of the car she'd been at.

Wondering what was up; she continued walking towards the truck, but turned to watch what Gibbs was doing. The older man walked up to the car she'd been standing next to, and knocked on the window roughly. It lowered again. She couldn't hear what the man said, but Gibbs' response was loud and clear. "You can stop following my daughter around, that's how you can help me."

Caitie was surprised, that man had been following her around? Opening the truck door she deposited her backpack in the front seat but didn't get in as she listened to what Gibbs was saying.

"Yeah, I've seen you around, taking pictures of my daughter." Gibbs' voice came across the small street. "I want it to stop."

From her vantage point, Caitie could see the man was scared and she smirked, while she knew Gibbs would never hurt her, she knew all too well how intimidating Gibbs could be.

"I don't care if you're getting paid to do this, you tell your boss, whoever he is that if I ever see you taking pictures of my daughter again, I'll make sure you're never able to take a picture ever again." Gibbs threatened. "And if your boss has a problem with it he can take it up with me." And with that, Gibbs turned and walked back across the street.

Caitie quickly got into the truck and put her seat belt on. "I didn't know he was taking pictures of me." Caitie said quietly as Gibbs got into the truck.

"They're really good at staying out of sight, if you hadn't been over there I probably wouldn't have even noticed him tonight." Gibbs said. "What were you doing by his car?"

"Asking the time, the battery in my cell died." Caitie said, "He was the only person I could see around."

Gibbs looked in his rear view mirror, he could barely see the car and it finally disappeared.

"If you ever see him again, tell me."

"I will," Caitie promised. "What's for dinner?" she changed the subject.

* * *

Back at Caitie's school the man in the car called up the woman who had hired him.

"The father told me that he better not see me taking pictures of Caitie again." He reported when the woman answered.

"I'm heading back to D.C. I can keep tabs on the family myself, you'll get one last paycheck on Saturday and then I won't need you any longer."

"All right," the call disconnected and the man started the car up and drove away.

* * *

Caitie dropped her backpack at her desk and started to go into the kitchen, Gibbs stopped her, "Start your homework." He said.

"I already worked on it, I only have some math left; can I have some lemonade first?" Caitie asked.

"One glass, but get right onto your math after."

"Alright." Caitie got her snack and then went to her desk.

Gibbs pulled out his cell phone and dialed Abby. He knew that she was working late and he wanted to give her an update on the information he had about the man who had been following him and Caitie around.

"Hey Abs, I got more information, that man was waiting across the street from the school." Gibbs kept his voice low so Caitie wouldn't over hear.

"What's the update?" Abby asked.

"Caucasian, blond hair, green eyes, mid to late 30's, no visible tattoo's, but he was wearing a suit so they might have been covered. He had a scar that ran up into his hair." Gibbs told her, "He's about my height, maybe an inch or two taller. And from our conversation, it looks like he's a private investigator. He had a car, with Maryland plates 4 door sedan dark color. Zulu, Niner, 8, 2, Juliet, Oscar, Romeo." Gibbs rattled off the plate information.

He could hear Abby typing on the other end of the line. "I'm running the plate information and…" she stopped as something beeped.

"What do you got Abs?"

"The car is registered with a Sean Murray, he's a private investigator."

"Look into his financial records, find everything about him." Gibbs said shortly. "I'll be there in about an hour." And with that he hung up.

* * *

An hour later, Gibbs walked into Abby's lab to find the woman typing on her computer, McGee was next to her typing on the second keyboard, both were looking up something, and Gibbs quietly set down a Caf-Pow next to Abby.

"What do you got Abs?"

"Not much." Abby's voice was apologetic.

"But we're working on it." McGee interjected.

"What have you found?"

"He's a private investigator, in Baltimore, who up until May 2008 didn't have a very good reputation, then he started getting payments from a bank account which we are tracking and hasn't had any other jobs since, then."

"He's been following Caitie around since when?" Gibbs was pissed.

"Looks like it." McGee said "he gets wired money every Saturday."

"Keep me updated on what you find." Gibbs said turning to leave. Something beeped though and Abby spoke up.

"Gibbs, Gibbs, Gibbs!"

"Yeah, Abbs?"

"The bank account that's paying him is a government one."

* * *

_Please review!_


	12. Chapter 12

**_Here's chapter 12! Thanks for the reviews! And I'd like to thank CelticCrossings, my beta, she always does a great job. :)_**

* * *

Gibbs, McGee and Ziva walked up to Murray's house, While they didn't have any evidence that he was going to hurt Caitie or Gibbs, Gibbs wanted to see if the man would come in to answer some questions.

Ziva knocked and the man answered the door a moment later. "Yes?"

"NCIS." The three of them flashed their badges.

"What can I do to help you?" Murray asked.

"We've got a few questions we'd like to ask you." Gibbs said, it was then that Murray recognized Gibbs.

"Hey, you're the guy who yelled at me earlier."

"Yeah, I get kinda pissed off when people take pictures of my kid without permission." Gibbs shrugged his shoulders. "Can we come in?"

"Sure." The man moved and let the three of them entered the man's home.

"What are your questions?" the man asked.

"Who hired you?" Gibbs got right to the point.

"I don't know, I got a call in May or June of 2008 and was asked to take the job. I was promised 156,000 a year paid in weekly increments if I took pictures of this one girl and her family members, at first it was just the girl and an older woman I'm guessing her grandmother and then she went to live with you. I had to take 15 pictures of her each week."

"Had?" Gibbs noticed the verbiage; Murray was speaking in past tense.

"After you left me earlier, I called the woman and told her what happened." Murray shrugged. "She told me that I didn't have to take pictures of that girl anymore, my last payday is this Saturday."

Gibbs nodded quietly. "Can we have the phone number you called?"

The man went to the front hall and grabbed something off the hall table. "You can have the whole phone," he offered, "when I got hired, she bought me the phone and told me to only call her from this phone. I don't need it if I won't be working for her anymore."

"What can you tell me about the woman who hired you?" Gibbs asked.

"I never met her; I only talked with her on the phone."

"Did she ever give you her name?"

"No."

"You never asked your boss's name?" McGee asked his tone disbelieving.

"She paid me three thousand a week to take 15 pictures of a kid; I could usually get all the pictures taken in an afternoon. Most of the money I got bought my silence." Murray said defensively.

"Anything else you can tell us about your boss? No detail is too small."

"She always took my calls." Murray explained. "Once I could tell I woke her up. Another time I called, I could hear something in the background some other language."

"Do you know what language?" Gibbs asked.

"Some guttural language, she was saying something as she answered the phone; she actually spoke to me in it."

"Do you remember what she said?" Gibbs asked.

His face screwing up in concentration Murray thought back, finally he spoke "Shalum" he drew the word out.

Next to him, Ziva gave a start "Did you mean Shalom?" she inquired, pronouncing the Hebrew greeting correctly.

"That sounds more like what she said." Murray told her; "it was over a year ago that she answered the phone like that, I don't really remember what it was to be honest."

"It's Hebrew." Ziva's spoke as Gibbs realized the same thing.

"I don't know if she was a native speaker of Hebrew but she didn't speak English with an accent." Murray said.

_Hebrew is a second language_. Gibbs thought. _Since the bank account that's been paying him is a government one, it's a female government worker who has worked in or around the Middle East._

After a few more questions, the three of them left Murray's and started to go back to the Navy Yard, glancing at the clock though, he realized how late it was and decided to take McGee and Ziva home, promising to pick them up in the morning he started back to his house when he got a call from Caitie.

"Castle's bleeding!" She was hysterical, he couldn't make out much of what she was saying until "he's bleeding from his Butt!"

"What?" Gibbs asked.

"Castle is bleeding from his butt!" Caitie insisted. "He's on your bed and he won't get off! Should I call an ambulance? I wish I knew more about dogs. Abby knows more about dogs, I'll call her!" And with that she hung up

Pressing on the gas pedal, Gibbs made it home in record time. As he pulled up he could see that Abby's hearse was nowhere in sight. Throwing the door open he found Caitie at the bottom of the stairs, in tears.

"What's wrong?" he asked.

"I can't get a hold of Abby and I think Castle's dying!" she sobbed. "There was a lot of blood coming from his butt when I saw him last!"

"Castle's still in my room?" Gibbs asked, sitting next to Caitie.

Caitie hiccupped "As far as I know."

"I'll go up and see what's wrong." Gibbs got up and went to his room, not knowing what he'd find.

Quietly turning the light on, he half expected to find the dog already dead but he did not expect to find Castle panting on his bed, suddenly he realized what was wrong.

"Cathlynn, go to the basement to get one of the boxes one of the deep ones, put towels and such on the bottom."

He could hear Caitie moving around and he went back to the bed. "We'll take good care of you." His voice was quiet as he spoke to the dog.

Caitie soon came in, box in hand, fighting back tears. "Is he gonna die?" she asked.

"Nope."

'What's wrong?"

"You'll see in a minute." He took the box from Caitie and set it in the darkest part of his room and then went over to the dog. "Come on Castle." He said quietly. Picking the dog up, he felt more then heard the dog growl. "Oh stop," he told the dog as he laid the dog into the box. Castle seemed to understand what the box was for and got comfortable, lying down again. The dog kept panting, looking up at Gibbs and Caitie expectantly, as if saying 'Well, what's next?'

"Cathlynn, go get some water and food for Castle, okay?"

"You mean that box isn't going to be his casket?" Caitie asked, managing to sniffle and hiccup simultaneously.

"Nope, go do what I asked and come back and grab a spot on the bed."

"He bled on it." Caitie pointed out as she left the room.

Gibbs got up and stripped the bed of all the sheets. Stuffing them into his laundry basket he was putting new sheets on it as Caitie came back in and put the food and water dish by the box.

"No need to put it in just put it beside the box and make sure Castle can see where they are." Gibbs told her.

"What's going to happen to Castle?" Caitie asked, helping put the sheets on.

Gibbs smiled and then motioned for Caitie to sit down. "You'll see, just watch." He said quietly.

Caitie sat down next to Gibbs and put her feet up on the bedstead. "What are we watching…." She trailed off for a moment. "Is that a bubble of blood coming from his butt?" She asked, freaking out again.

"Watch," Gibbs ordered, then smiled as Caitie realized what was happening.

"It's a puppy!" Caitie realized happily. Her phone rang and she picked up.

"Hey Abby, apparently Castle's giving birth, not dying." She quickly caught the forensic tech up on what was happening

"Better think of names" Gibbs told the teenager.

"Jenny if it's a girl." Caitie said instantly.

Gibbs smiled to himself as Castle bit the umbilical cord to cut it and then began to lick the puppy clean.

Caitie lay down on the bed, positioning herself so she could watch the birth of the next puppy and started giving Abby a minute by minute replay of what was happening. Gibbs got up, he'd seen several puppy births, this was nothing new to him and he figured Caitie would be sleeping in his room tonight. He may as well get comfortable on the couch.

* * *

_Please review!_


	13. Chapter 13

**_Here's chapter 13! Thanks for the reviews! And I'd like to thank CelticCrossings, my beta, she always does a great job. :)_**

* * *

**Chapter 13:**

The next morning, Caitie was tired but happy, three puppies had been born the night before and the teen already had names picked out.

"Time for school," Gibbs peeked into his room; Caitie was lying on the bed, still looking at the puppies.

Caitie sighed and picked up her backpack. "I'll be back, Beckett."

"I thought her name was Castle?"

"Castle's a boys name; Beckett's a girl's name." Caitie grinned.

The drive to school was quick and Gibbs was soon back on the road to pick up Ziva and McGee and they got to work to find that Tony was already there, working on the case Gibbs had dropped on his desk the night before.

Gibbs started to go down to Abby's lab to see if she had made any more progress on the credit card that had been paying the PI but was stopped by Vance. "Gibbs, I need to speak with you." He spoke from the stairwell.

Gibbs nodded and started up the stairs, the sooner he finished with Vance the sooner he could get back to his case.

"I know you're having Abby look into a Private investigator." Vance started as soon as the door was closed.

"He was following me and Caitie around taking pictures; so yeah I'm looking into him." Gibbs said.

"SecNav gave me a call this morning. He told me to tell you to stop looking into it. The Private investigator won't be taking pictures of Caitie anymore but stop looking into it; if you continue, you'll be in trouble with SecNav."

Gibbs glared at Vance. "What do you know about him?" Gibbs asked, "The PI."

"Nothing," Vance said, Gibbs could tell that Vance was being honest. "He said it's above both of our pay grades and if you have any questions, to call him."

Gibbs nodded and walked out of Vance's office intent on calling SecNav and then having Abby still look into the PI some more. As he walked down the stairs, Tony passed him going in the opposite direction. "Boss, I'm needed in MTAC."

Gibbs nodded and went down the stairs to call SecNav.

As he got to his desk, though, his phone rang. "Gibbs." He sighed as he realized that it was a call about a body. Taking down the info, he looked to McGee and Ziva. "We got a body in Norfolk." He said, "Gear up."

"What about Tony?" McGee asked, picking his stuff up.

"You stay here; drive with him, here's the address." Gibbs said, he tossed the paper he'd written the address on at McGee and left with Ziva.

The drive to the crime scene was quick and Gibbs and Ziva both quickly went inside to start working. The victim's brother was there as well, he had been the one to call the cops. He had come over early in the morning to go jogging and had come upon his brother's body.

After finding out that the cops had messed with the body, trying to find ID, Gibbs left Palmer and Ducky with the body and took the brother outside to try and talk with him. An interview with him was the closest thing they could get to an un-tampered crime scene.

"What happened when you came over this morning?" Gibbs asked.

"Dude, I saw my brother dead!" The brother said, agitated.

"Where exactly was he?" Gibbs asked.

"The cops moved him less than a foot before they called you in, so maybe 8 inches from where it is now?" Gibbs's gut was sending him signals, and Gibbs spoke again carefully, trying to figure out what was wrong.

"I'm going to have to ask you to take both hands out of the pocket and place them where we can see them." Gibbs said quietly.

The man did so, and it became clear that there was something else in the front pocket, but knowing he'd been planning to go jogging earlier, Gibbs gave the man the benefit of the doubt that it was a bottle of water and continued with the interview.

"So you came inside and saw your brother, did you unlock the door? Or was it already open?"

"I unlocked it, my brother and I have keys to each other's place."

Gibbs nodded and asked another question. "Did you notice him right when you came in or did it take a moment?"

"It took a moment; I'm used to hearing him move around the house as I walk in. I didn't hear anything this time. It caught me off guard."

"When you didn't hear him, where did you look for him first?"

"I went through the living room to go to the kitchen to grab a glass of orange juice; I ran out yesterday and haven't had a chance to go to the store. At first I figured Michael was upstairs or something."

"Where was he when you saw him?"

"In the living room, he was lying in front of the window, a huge puddle of blood under his head." The man began to shake and Gibbs looked around, trying to see if Tony and McGee had gotten there yet. Ziva had gone over to the gate leading out to the front yard.

"My brother's dead." For some reason, the whisper made Gibbs turn, something in his voice made Gibbs uneasy, when he turned he realized why.

The brother had a gun out and was pointing it at himself, the classic suicide pose.

"I know where you are," Gibbs said, "you want revenge for the bastard who did this to your brother. We're working on trying to find the guy who did this; we just need some more information about how you found him."

"You don't understand!" The gun suddenly turned on Gibbs and Gibbs got his own gun out, behind him, he could hear Ziva getting her gun out.

"Put the gun down," Gibbs ordered his voice flat.

"No! You don't know what I'm going through!" The brother screamed, pulling the trigger.

Gibbs felt a searing pain in his upper arm and he fell back, through the pain, he could hear three more gunshots in quick succession.

Ziva ran to the brother, who had fallen and kicked the gun out of the way before running to Gibbs, Ducky and Palmer rushed out, knowing that they'd be needed.

"Don't worry, Gibbs, we'll get you to a hospital." Ziva promised.

***Meanwhile in MTAC***

Tony walked into MTAC, which was surprisingly empty, there was usually close to a dozen people typing away on the computers, but today there was only one woman who was bringing up the call as Tony walked in.

"Yes Mr. Secretary?" Tony asked as he saw SecNav on the screen.

"A few years ago, you were instrumental in helping a fellow agent go undercover, do you remember the case?"

Tony thought for a moment before it registered who SecNav was talking about. "Yes Sir, I remember."

"She's no longer needed undercover and she said that you had offered to help her transition to life outside her undercover position, are you still willing to help?"

"Yes Sir." Tony agreed instantly. "Is there a way I can contact her?"

"Turn around." SecNav said, then disconnected the call himself.

Tony turned, MTAC was still quite empty, the only person still there was…Tony sucked in a breath as he realized who was in MTAC.

The woman who had been at the computers turned around. He couldn't help but return the smile she gave him. "Hey." He knew the greeting came out strangled, but he didn't care if he cried, he'd missed her.

The woman looked at Tony for a few moments, smiling warmly. Finally the woman spoke. "I've missed you too, Tony."

* * *

_Please Review! There is a poll on my profile page about who the woman could be, go and vote in it! :)_


	14. Chapter 14

**_Here's chapter 14! Thanks for the reviews! And I'd like to thank CelticCrossings, my beta, she always does a great job. :)_**

* * *

**Chapter 14:**

Gibbs turned over onto his side, still unable to sleep. Peeking at the clock, he could see the red lettering said 12:45 am. Groaning to himself, he turned onto his back. His injury wasn't _that_ bad, he'd been cleared to go at dinner time, but Caitie had somehow managed to convince both Gibbs and the doctor that he needed to stay the night for observation.

Tony quietly walked into to room, "Hey Boss." He said quietly.

"Hey DiNozzo," Gibbs spoke quietly as Caitie was sleeping in a cot next to him, he didn't want to wake the girl.

"I just wanted to see how you were doing."

"I'd be better if I could go home."

"I thought the doc cleared you to go home." DiNozzo said.

"He said he'd prefer it if I stayed the night for observation but I was cleared to go home at Dinner. Caitie convinced me to stay the night." Gibbs said, still quietly.

"Look Boss…." Tony started. "I gotta tell you something."

"Can it wait DiNozzo?" Gibbs asked, it was the middle of the night after all, and he didn't want to risk Caitie waking up, just because he couldn't sleep didn't mean that Caitie had to be woken up.

Tony's eyes widened as he tried to figure out if his news could wait. "It could Boss, but not much later then this afternoon."

Gibbs got up from the bed, Tony started to object but a look from Gibbs silenced him and both men walked out of the hospital room, and out to the empty waiting room.

"Is it about the case?"

"No, but Abby did find out that the gun you were shot with was the gun that shot the dead Marine." Tony said. "Looks like the brother killed our Marine but he died from the wounds Ziva gave him before he could get to the hospital."

"Well what else would you need to tell me?" Gibbs asked.

"First, I want you to promise you won't be mad." DiNozzo requested, even while knowing how childish his request seemed.

"DiNozzo…"

"Please Boss." DiNozzo pleaded.

Gibbs looked at the younger agent for a moment, it was clear something was bothering him. "As long as you don't apologize."

"I'm not apologizing for anything Boss," the tone in Tony's voice told him that Tony had no intention of apologizing. "But I do regret keeping it from you."

"I can tell DiNozzo, and while I can't promise I won't get mad, I will promise that I won't kill you."

Tony apparently decided that that was good enough and he started speaking. "A few years ago, when I was doing the undercover work for Jenny, the La Grenouille op, she asked me to help her with another agent who was going undercover." Tony started; he took in a breath and continued. "Until the day of that specific undercover operation, I didn't know who it was. I was never even told if they were a male or female agent until the day of the op."

"As a precautionary measure, this particular agent had to fake their death to go undercover." He shrugged, "apparently this agent had been undercover before and the previous cover had been blown and he or she was needed to go back undercover to tie up loose ends. To do so, this agent had to die to keep any of the loose ends from coming after this agent's family and friends before they could be taken care of."

"As head of NCIS Jenny had to give permission for the undercover work, and she was involved in what the undercover work would entail. She seemed to have a personal interest in the case and would ask my opinion on some of the ways she'd thought of to fake the death of this particular agent."

Gibbs nodded, what had Tony done that was so horrible? It sounded like he'd done his job. "Sounds like you did your job DiNozzo." Gibbs said.

"Boss, please, let me finish." Gibbs was surprised at how defeated Tony sounded. "At the time I had an idea of who it was, but I didn't know for sure until later." Gibbs was silent, he could tell that DiNozzo was using this as therapy, and needed to tell the long version.

"I helped Jenny figure out how this agent would go under cover; how they would "die" he used his fingers to make quotes, "How they would get out of the country, as they were flying to England and then onto the country that they had to be in for the undercover op."

"We had to get Ducky involved; he didn't know it was for an undercover op Boss, or if he knew, I didn't know he knew." Tony's tone took a pleading turn, and Gibbs could hear the silent plea _don't get mad at Ducky, he didn't do anything wrong_.

"What happened then DiNozzo?"

"I was asked by Jenny to help out by calling the airline that would take this agent out of the country after their death." Tony took in a breath. "I accepted the assignment and was told that when I got a text from a specific number I was to call in and do what I'd been asked, basically make sure the ticket was ready to be picked up at the kiosk outside the airport that this particular agent was going to be flying out of."

Gibbs noticed that Tony had said his help had been requested by Jenny, not ordered.

"Jenny stopped talking about this op about 6 weeks before this particular agent went undercover." Tony's voice had gotten quieter and his head was hanging down, clearly he regretted whatever he'd done.

"The day of Jenny's death," Gibbs' heart clenched both at what Tony was saying and at the sorrow in Tony's voice. "I got the text." There was silence as Tony tried to keep his emotions in check. "I called the ticket in, to LAX."

Gibbs gut signaled again and the agent tried to ignore it, he must have been misunderstanding Tony, the undercover agent couldn't have been…..

"It was then that I found out who the agent was Gibbs." The regret in Tony's voice tore at Gibbs' heart, and although he expected them, his heart stopped at Tony's next words.

"It was Jenny."

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	15. Chapter 15

**Here's chapter 15, sorry it took so long to get it up. A big thank you goes out to CelticCrossings, my beta, she does a great job with what I send her.**

* * *

Gibbs stared at Tony for a few seconds while the news sunk in.

"Boss, I'm sorry." Tony apologized.

Gibbs gave Tony a smack on the back of the head. "You said you wouldn't apologize."

"Thank you, Boss."

"You did your job DiNozzo." Gibbs said, anger festering under the surface as he thought that Jenny had left their Caitie, their little girl. "And it sounded like you did a good one." There was a pause. "Who else knows about this?"

"I think it's only SecNav and I." Tony said, "If more people know, I wasn't told."

Gibbs nodded and looked over at DiNozzo. "Where is she?"

"She said she got an apartment in DC, I'm not sure where it is, she said she'd call my cell with the address tomorrow, or later today. I thought it best to tell you as soon as possible."

"I understand DiNozzo, and I'm not mad at you for keeping this from me."

"Dad?" Caitie's voice made him turn. "Is something wrong?"

Gibbs was speechless for a moment, how was he going to tell Caitie? "I just had to talk to Tony about the case Caitie; I didn't want to wake you." He finally said. Locking eyes with Tony for a moment he hoped Tony knew that he would tell Caitie in his own time.

Tony nodded quietly and got up. "We're done Caitie; I need to get going anyway. Boss, Vance said since I was working late tonight I could come in later tomorrow."

"That's fine DiNozzo. I won't even be in tomorrow. Thanks for telling me, about the recent developments in the case."

Tony nodded and walked down the hall of the hospital towards the entrance.

Gibbs got up and led Caitie back into the hospital room; they went to their separate beds and lay down. Gibbs looked over to his daughter as she went back to sleep. He mentally cursed Jenny and the spot she'd put him in. The fact that Jenny was still alive was bound to hurt Caitie.

"Dad?" The irony struck Gibbs at that moment; the day Caitie finally trusted him enough to call him Dad was the day Jenny came back.

"Yeah Caitie Cate?"

"Can you tell me a story?"

"A Princess Story?" Gibbs asked, Kelly had loved princess stories.

"No," there was a long pause. "About something else."

"Like what?"

"Not sure." Caitie yawned and he could hear her turning over in the cot.

"Well, there was once a Marine." Gibbs started. "Who had the best life, he had a wife, a little girl and he had a job he was proud of."

"What were his wife and daughter's names?"

"Shannon was his wife and Kelly is his daughter."

"What happened?"

"The Marine was deployed and life went on for Shannon and Kelly. Kelly had ballet lessons. Shannon had her knitting club, Kelly went to school, Shannon went to her job. Life was good."

"Why do I get the feeling something bad is about to happen?"

"Because it is." Gibbs said, "One day while Shannon and Kelly were on their way to Kelly's ballet lesson and Shannon witnessed a murder."

"That's horrible!" Caitie said, Gibbs ignored it, figuring her comments were just punctuation in his story.

"Shannon was really brave and reported the murder, but because of who committed the murder Kelly and Shannon had to go into Witness protection."

"What about the Marine, did he come back to find his family gone?" Caitie was sitting up now.

Gibbs took in a breath. Now he was getting to the hard part. "Shannon and Kelly were placed in witness protection but they were found and…." Gibbs couldn't say it.

"They died?" Caitie guessed after a long pause.

"Yeah. But the Marine, when he came home, he found out who killed his wife and daughter. He made him pay for his family's death."

There was a long pause, and Gibbs wondered if he'd scared Caitie with the story. But she finally spoke, with no fear in her voice. "Dad?"

"Yeah?"

"By made him pay, do you mean that you killed the man who killed Shannon and Kelly?" Gibbs was speechless for a few moments. "That's who Kelly is, isn't she? Kelly's my sister, right?"

Gibbs smiled to himself. "You're a lot smarter then you let on, you know that?"

Caitie laughed, "Yeah, Mom was the only one to know how smart I was and not expect the world of me."

"What do you mean?"

"When people know you're smart, they expect more from you, which is fine, but it's just hard when _everyone_ expects more of you. It feels like you have to be someone else. With Mom, she knew how smart I am but she didn't expect me to get all A's or to be a few grades ahead of the kids I go to school with."

"Sounds like Jenny was a good mom." Gibbs said quietly.

"She was."

There was a long pause, about the time that Gibbs figured Caitie was asleep she spoke. "Dad?"

"Yeah?"

"Is it weird that I already have a name picked out for my future daughter?"

"No, Shannon had Kelly's picked out since she was about your age." Gibbs said, he paused. "Although Tony would say that it might be weird depending on the name you like."

"Amelia Jennifer, with the nickname Amy." Caitie said, "Jennifer after Mom, and Amelia after a neighbor I had in Baltimore. Amy was her nickname."

"Was Amy in your grade?"

"No, she….she lived next door with her husband." Caitie said, regret plagued her voice, he could hear her sigh. "The home Grandmother lived in was one of those duplexes, where it was like two houses shoved up against each other and they shared a wall. My bedroom shared a wall with their bedroom." There was a long pause. "I could hear him, he yelled at her a lot and threw stuff." Another pause. "She died a few years ago, she finally succumbed to the beatings."

Gibbs' heart clenched, his daughter had been scared and he hadn't been there to help her. _You're here now_. His conscience surprisingly sounded like Samantha Ryan.

"Caitie, come here." He moved over as far as he could on the bed.

"Where?"

"The bed."

"Why?"

_Because we never got to experience you climbing into bed because of nightmares_. Gibbs thought, surprised at his sudden anger at Jenny. It seemed that he was less angry at her if she was dead. "Because when you're feeling sad you shouldn't sleep alone." He finally said.

"Okay." Caitie got up and climbed onto the bed, he could tell that Caitie was laying on top of the covers instead of getting under them. Caitie snuggled up next to him and sighed happily.

"Goodnight Caitie." He whispered.

"Goodnight Dad."

* * *

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	16. Chapter 16

**Wow, it's been a while since I added on, isn't it? sorry for the delay. I'd like to thank my beta Celtic Crossings for the great job she does on my chapters. ****Enjoy!**

**Chapter 16:**

* * *

Caitie woke as the sun peeked through the windows. Dad was awake too, texting someone.

"Dad?"

He abruptly slapped his phone shut and turned to her, "yeah Caitie?"

"Do I have to go to school today?"

"Did something happen yesterday?" Dad asked.

"No, I just don't like school." Caitie yawned.

"Do you have anything important due today?"

"No."

Gibbs looked at his daughter for a long moment. Finally he spoke, "I'll let you stay home today but tomorrow its right back to school."

"Okay."

"Caitie, I've gotta make a couple of phone calls for work, why don't you take my wallet and go get breakfast from the cafeteria?" Dad suggested.

Caitie nodded and got up and after grabbing her father's wallet she left the room. Pulling his cell phone out again he finished the text he had been sending to DiNozzo. "_What's Jenny's new address_?

The text was answered a few minutes later with the address and Gibbs committed it to memory before deleting the text so Caitie wouldn't see it.

It took another few hours but Gibbs was finally released from the hospital. Thankfully his wound wasn't too bad, he'd just have to have his arm in a sling for a few weeks. After taking Caitie home he dropped her off and told her "No TV or computer games."

Caitie nodded and the truck door slam drowned out her response, she was nodding, so Gibbs assumed she'd be all right in the house alone.

Then, pulling out into the street again he started to make the drive to Jenny's apartment.

* * *

Jenny glanced up as another car pulled up into her apartment complex. Her heart skipped a beat as she realized it was Jethro's truck. Gibbs got out, an arm in a sling and started looking for the apartment numbers, clearly looking for her apartment. Jenny got up and opened her front door; Gibbs turned at the noise and then, upon seeing her, walked towards her apartment.

"Jethro…" Jenny started to greet him.

"Can I come in?" Jethro didn't let Jenny finish her greeting.

"Yeah," Jenny moved aside and he walked into her apartment. "Please, make yourself comfortable." She told him.

Jethro moved to the living room and gestured to the couch, "can I sit?"

"Yes of course Jethro, I didn't expect you to come visit so soon."

"I've a couple of questions I need answered." Jenny could hear the quiet anger.

"All right, what questions do you have?" Jenny perched on a chair.

"Why?"

"Why what? You're going to have to be a little more specific then that."

"Why didn't you tell anyone about Caitie? Why didn't you tell _me_ about Caitie? Why didn't you take Caitie when you went undercover?"

"I didn't tell anyone about Caitie because you know we didn't get out of Serbia and France with our covers intact. If I had told anyone about Caitie, then it would have put you and Caitie in danger."

Jethro leaned back in the couch and looked solemnly over to her.

"What are you thinking Jethro?"

"I missed the first 13 years of my daughter's life. I missed the first 13 years of firsts Jenny, first word, first steps, and first day of school. First loose tooth, first time riding a two wheeler, first time playing with mommy's make up, first smile."

"I did too, if it makes you feel any better." Jenny commented with a wry smile.

"It doesn't." He paused and spoke again. "Why'd you leave Caitie when you went undercover?"

"I would have taken her with me Jethro, but I had no choice. I made sure she was well taken care of. It was either fake my death and go to Libya or lose my job, my income, my health insurance Caitie was on my health insurance."

"She could have been added onto my health insurance Jenny."

"And now this goes back to me not telling anyone about Caitie because of safety issues."

"Damn it Jen, you know it's not about safety." Jethro said, "You didn't like that you'd have to deal with me for 18 more years if I knew about Caitie."

"That's not true Jethro!" Jenny said, "I did what I thought was best for Caitie."

Gibbs shook his head, they were going nowhere with this.

"You can't honestly be that mad about my not telling you about this Jethro." Jenny said. "You know the job."

"I get the job. I'm not angry for me, hell Jen, I'm not even mad that you didn't tell me about her, I want an answer for why you didn't tell me, but I'm not angry about that. I'm angry you faked your death and didn't tell anyone, I'm angry for Caitie." Jenny's eyebrows went up at the abrupt change in subject. "Jenny," Gibbs' voice got quiet, but they could both hear the quiet anger in his voice. "You left my baby."

* * *

Although she knew no one was in the house to see her performance, Caitie sighed dramatically as she plopped down on the couch. "This is so boring!" she called out to the empty house. If Dad was intending to punish her for not going to school by not allowing her to watch TV or play computer games then it was definitely working.

Hearing the door open she jerked to the side, and tried to see who it was without getting off of the couch, moving would take too much energy. Thinking Dad had sent Tony over to check on her and make sure she wasn't breaking any rules, she called "Hey Tony, if it's you, can we go get ice cream? Dad's not letting me watch TV or play on my laptop."

"My name's not Tony." A man even older then Gibbs stepped into Caitie's line of sight.

"Well then what is it?" Caitie asked, dragging herself up to a sitting position.

"Jackson Gibbs, who are you and what are you doing in my son's house?"

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	17. Chapter 17

**Here's chapter 17, I'm in the middle of a move and my computer broke so I'm still in the process of getting it fixed. It may be a while before I'm able to post chapter 18. I'm sorry it's taken so long to get this up.**

**Chapter 17:**

Gibbs flipped his phone open during the first ring. "You better be dying." He didn't care who was on the other end of the line.

"Leroy, would you mind telling me what your 13 year old daughter is doing ditching school today?"

Gibbs mouth worked silently for a moment. "Dad, you didn't tell me you were going to be in town." Was all he was finally able to say.

"Yes, and your teenager is skipping school on the 3rd day of school?"

"Yes Dad." Gibbs said. "I'm coming to the house, I'll be there in about 15 minutes, I'll talk to you then." He closed the phone and slipped it into his pocket before grabbing his sweatshirt and starting to put it on.

"Here." Jenny said, getting up she helped with getting the sweatshirt over the sling and then she looked up at Jethro. "When can I come over to the house?"

"Probably not today, I haven't told Caitie about you still being alive; I was going to do it after I got some answers from you."

"I'll wait for your call Jethro; I do need to see Caitie."

"We'll see if Caitie even wants to see you after she hears the news." Jethro said, he pulled away from Jenny and left the apartment.

Jethro opened the door to find Caitie and his Dad on the couch. Jackson was reading a book aloud to the teenager who looked about half asleep.

"Hey."

Caitie opened her eyes sleepily. "Hi." She greeted, Gibbs didn't like how tired Caitie looked; she'd gotten at least 7 hours of sleep the night before, why was she so tired?

"Caitie, if you're so tired, you should go up to bed." Gibbs said quietly.

"Too tired to." Caitie said quietly.

Gibbs knelt down next to her, and started to pick her up. "Arms around my neck Caitie Cate." Sleepily she did as ordered and fell asleep in his arms as he carried her up the stairs to her bedroom.

After setting her down on her bed he used the extra blanket to cover her up before leaving her in her bedroom. As he closed the door behind him he could see his father coming up the stairs.

"When I was chastising you about letting her stay home from school I didn't see how tired she was." Jackson told his son.

"It's okay Dad, let's get some coffee." Gibbs kept his voice quiet so Caitie wouldn't wake.

They quietly made their way downstairs. "Caitie told me why you hadn't called me with the news that she'd come to live with you."

"What did she say?" Gibbs asked, he almost didn't want to know.

"She told me that she came to live here only last week, and with getting her stuff moved in and getting her signed up for school that the two of you have been incredibly busy."

Gibbs realized what Caitie had done, she'd covered for him. The real reason he hadn't gotten around to telling his dad about Caitie because he had been ashamed that he'd missed out on the first 13 years of Caitie's life. He knew his father would have something to say about that, and if he knew that Caitie had lived here all summer he'd have even more to say about it._She probably figured that out and covered for you_. His conscience still sounded like Dr. Ryan. Caitie was smart, he'd give her that.

Jethro got the coffee started and both of them sat down at the kitchen table. "Caitie and I have both been busy settling her in Dad; I was planning on calling you soon to tell you about her."

"I understand Leroy." His dad said, "Did you know about her?"

"Not until this summer."

"Who's her mother?"

"Jenny Shepard, she used to be director of NCIS, we worked together in 98, and Caitie was born in 99. She went to live with her grandmother after Jenny's death. When her grandmother died I was contacted."

"Why weren't you contacted when Jenny died?"

"Jenny's will stated that Caitie was supposed to go to her grandmother and since I wasn't on the birth certificate, no one contacted me."

"Have you changed her birth certificate yet?"

"It's a long process, but I've started it." Gibbs said, in reality the new certificate was supposed to come in the mail in the next week or so.

"Too bad Jenny's not alive; I have a few things I'd like to say to her."

"Yeah, about that," Jethro got up and poured them both a cup of coffee. "I found out this morning that Jenny had to fake her death for the job, she's still alive. Caitie doesn't know yet."

"She left a 13 year old for the job?" Jackson asked.

Gibbs didn't correct his father, he knew Jenny had a good answer for leaving Caitie the way she had, if Jenny was half the mom Caitie had made her out to be, then she hadn't left willingly. "If Jenny was half the mom Caitie made her out to be, Jenny didn't have a choice, even the NCIS director has a boss and Jenny would have had to follow orders." Gibbs said, "I'm still trying to get answers for why she left and why she didn't tell me about Caitie."

"Caitie should know Jenny's alive."

"I'll tell her today, the longer I put it off the harder it'll be to tell her."

The conversation turned to other matters and by the time Caitie woke again, it was lunch time and her dad and grandfather were making BLT's.

"Bacon smells good." She said as opened the fridge and pulled out the orange juice. Gibbs noticed she was wearing his old NIS sweatshirt, realizing she'd grabbed it before he'd been able to put it away he smiled, Jenny had had the same habit of stealing his sweatshirts.

Grabbing a glass she poured herself some and sat down. "So am I allowed to watch TV and play on my computer after school hours?"

"Nope, if you're too sick to go to school, you're too sick to play games no matter what time it is."

"I'm not sick; I just didn't want to go today."

"In the past 24 hours, you slept during your math class, and you took 2 naps at the hospital before bed time and you slept nearly 10 hours straight before waking up and taking another nap until now." Gibbs said, "If it were later in the school year, I'd say you were tired from having to stay up late and do homework, but it's only the 3rd day of school. You're sick."

"How did you know about my math class?"

"Your teacher called my cell while you were in the waiting room."

"Oh, are you going to take me to the doctor?"

"Yep, Ducky knows a few pediatricians; he'll give me a recommendation."

Caitie nodded and they all sat down to eat lunch. When Caitie was putting her dirty dishes into the sink, Gibbs spoke. "We need to talk about something important, you feeling up to talking right now?"

Caitie nodded, her eyes worried. "Yeah, what is it?"

Gibbs sucked in a breath, "you know your mom loved you, right?"

"Yeah, she told me that every day."

"She never would have done anything to purposely hurt you Caitie Cate."

"What happened?" Caitie asked, her voice rising in worry.

Gibbs bit the bullet; beating around the bush wouldn't do any good right now. "I just found out this morning that Jenny had to fake her death, for the job." He took a breath in and his daughter's stunned look was burned into memory. "She's still alive Caitie."

"She's still alive?"

"Yeah." Gibbs said, his heart ripping in two at the hurt in Caitie's tone.

"And she didn't tell me?"

"From what I understand, she wasn't allowed to tell anyone Caitie, I didn't even know until this morning."

"Why didn't she tell me? I would have kept it a secret."

"I don't have all the answers Caitie; do you want me to invite her over so we can all talk?"

Caitie nodded, "yeah."

Gibbs nodded and grabbed his keys. "I don't have her number, but I know where she's staying, I'll go get her."

Caitie nodded "Okay." She said. "I'd rather stay here."

"I understand, I'll be back in about 45 minutes. Gibbs told Caitie and his father.

Both of them nodded and Gibbs left.

Jenny looked up as Jethro pulled into the parking lot of her apartment complex again.

She went to the door, opening it just as Jethro was about to knock, she opened the door and moved to the side, a silent invitation inside.

"What is it?"

"I told Caitie." Gibbs didn't bother wasting time beating around the bush.

"And?"

"And she's hurt but she wants to see you. Today."

Jenny grabbed her purse. "Take me to my baby Jethro."

"She wants answers Jen."

"I'll give them to her. Take me to my baby."

They both got into the truck and left, the drive to Gibbs' house was short, and when they got there, Jenny suddenly hesitated. It had been nearly 4 and a half years since she'd seen her daughter, really seen her, what if Caitie didn't love her anymore?


	18. Chapter 18

_**Sorry it took so long to update this, but I've been working a new job and moving, so life has been busy. I've already started on the next chapter, so I hope to post chapter 19 faster then this one.**_

_**Enjoy!**_

**Chapter 18:**

"Mom?" Caitie's voice made Jenny start forward. The teenager moved to let Jenny in and Jenny heard the door close behind her as she wrapped her daughter in her arms. Both of them sighed, relaxing; the stress of being without each other finally lifted.

"Momma, I thought you died." Caitie whispered.

"I had to fake my death Caitie." Jenny whispered. "I didn't have a choice."

"What happened?" Caitie asked, pulling back, Jenny brushed the tears from her daughter's cheeks and she guided Caitie to Jethro's couch, she could see bits and pieces of Caitie's stuff around the house, a coat hanging on a door handle, a girly magazine on the coffee table. There were even a couple of pillows on an empty spot on the floor, along with a book; a self-made reading nook for her book loving daughter.

"Let me tell you what happened and if you have any questions afterwards, you can ask them." Jenny said quietly, feeling, more than seeing Jethro lean up against a wall, listening in on their conversation. She could also sense someone in the kitchen, but Jethro's guard was down so she trusted his judgment.

"When you were a couple of years old and we were living in Egypt, I had a case, I can't tell you much about it but there were men who were bombing schools and my team and I went undercover and took him down and made sure he couldn't hurt anyone else again. I thought that everything had been taken care of, and closed the case. Years later, when I was director, I found out that not everything had been taken care of like I'd thought and that my cover had been blown and that the man I'd killed in Egypt, his son had found out who I was and where I was living. He was going to finish his father's work and make sure no one stood in his way to do so. I stood in his way."

"What happened?"

"I started to prepare to go undercover and SecNav, the Secretary of the Navy," she quickly explained, "My boss and I talked and we decided that since my cover had been blown, I needed to go back undercover, but since my previous cover had been blown I was ordered to fake my death. If the bad guy thought I was still alive, then anyone close to me would be in danger."

"So you pretended to die so that Dad and I could stay safe." Caitie realized.

"Yes." Jenny said, she caressed Caitie's hair and the girl yawned, Jenny pulled the girl into her arms and kept talking. "I was originally going to get sick with ALS, but before I could 'die' from that, the opportunity came to be shot and SecNav took that chance and had me declared dead and after I healed I went to my undercover position."

"Why'd it take so long Mom?" Caitie asked.

"Why did what take so long?" Jenny asked, needing clarification before she answered Caitie's question.

"Coming back."

"Because it took this long to get the bad guy." Jenny whispered, pain coursing through her tone. "I'm sorry it took so long, I've missed you baby."

"I missed you too Momma."

"Well, when I was in LA, for a funeral I was involved in a shooting and I was..." there was a pause. "Injured." Jenny cleared her throat and kept talking, "I was knocked unconscious during my injury and I by the time I woke up, SecNav had already had me declared dead and my funeral was going to take place later that day." Jenny said. "I wanted to get word to you Caitie but that bad guy..."

"He would have hurt Daddy." Caitie said quietly, "you couldn't have suddenly come back until the bad guy was taken care of."

Jenny nodded and pressed a kiss to Caitie's hair. "Do you have any questions?"

Caitie shook her head, "not right now." she said.

Jethro cleared his throat and Jenny knew without even looking that her former lover did have questions. She nodded wordlessly telling him she'd be happy to answer them.

"Jethro," Jenny turned to the man who was still listening in on the conversation, "Where were my personal effects put?"

"The only personal effects that were found were your wallet and whatever was in your purse. They should be in evidence."

"I'm talking about my locket Jethro," Caitie suddenly sat up properly and turned to her mother, "and the other jewellery I was wearing that day, I had some earrings on too, they aren't in evidence." Jenny kept talking. "I was given everything this morning, they weren't in there."

"I never saw any of your jewellery Jen." Jethro said, taking a big sip of his coffee.

"Mom." Caitie said, "Were you with a man the day you died? A man with a mustache?"

Jenny looked at her daughter in amazement, "Yes, how did you know?"

"He gave me your jewellery Mom, and some stuff from the house before it burned." Caitie jumped up from the couch and then raced upstairs.

"Why do I get the feeling that there's more to your death then what you told Caitie?" Jethro asked, he wasn't trying to sound judgmental but he could feel in his gut that there was more to the story then what Jenny had told their daughter.

"Because there is, but I don't want Caitie to know everything just yet, she's too young to know everything."

Jethro nodded "I would like to know the entire story Jenny." He said quietly as he set a coffee cup down in front of her, she picked it up and took a sip, smiling faintly at the strength of the flavor.

"I'll be happy to tell you when we're in a safe room. I can't tell you more otherwise." Jenny said before sipping her coffee quietly as they heard Caitie running around upstairs, the 13 year old thundered down the stairs and burst into the living room a necklace dangling from her fingers.

"Here you go Mom." The joy in her daughter's voice made Jenny smile and she took the locket and opened it.

A paper she was unfamiliar with fell out and she set it aside to look at the pictures inside, she and Caitie smiled up from the left side of the locket and then to the picture of Jethro on the other side.

"What's that?" Caitie asked, pointing to the paper, Jenny shrugged, she had no idea, she hadn't put it there, but then Caitie's earlier statement registered.

"How did you know I was with Mike Franks, Caitie?"

Caitie shrugged, "I never knew his name, but he gave me your jewellery." she replied simply.

"What?" Both Jenny and Jethro spoke as Caitie's words registered.

"Okay, so after you died like, right around your funeral, this guy came to the house, he had your locket and some of your other jewellery." Caitie shrugged again, "He gave it to me and made me promise not to open the locket until I was twenty-one."

Jenny turned when Jethro moved and picked up the paper, he read it and then slipped it into his pocket. "It's for me," he said quietly. "It's a reminder of one of my rules."

Caitie's eyes lit up. "A new rule?" Her tone was eager. Jenny laughed as she realized that Caitie might be the only person in the world excited about Jethro's rules.

"Rule 52; always love the mother of your child."

"I've never heard a Rule in the 50's before!" Caitie sounded surprised.

"That's because those rules are used only in an emergency." Jethro said, quietly. He looked to Caitie then, she could hear the tightness in his voice as he spoke to her. "I need to speak with your mother alone, could you go help Grandpa with getting stuff ready for dinner?"

"Sure." Caitie jumped up and went into the kitchen. "Grandpa?" Her excited voice carried both into the kitchen and the living room "What are we having for dinner?"

"What is it?" Jenny knew Jethro wouldn't re-bring up the fact that he hadn't known about Caitie with her in the house. He was mad at her for that, but he wouldn't use it to poison Caitie against Jenny.

"Caitie's got to go to the doctor in a couple of days," he began; he quickly caught Jenny up on how much Caitie had been sleeping and then finished with, "Ducky's coming over tonight with some Pediatrician recommendations."

"She's getting old enough, it might be better for her to see on OBGYN instead." Jenny commented.

Jethro started at that information and she wondered if she'd gone too far by suggesting it. He had legal custody of Caitie, so it was really up to him what kind of doctor she saw. "I thought that OBGYN's were only for pregnancy and when you were sexually active." She could tell that Jethro didn't like the idea of his teenager being sexually active.

"She's almost old enough that she could get an abortion in Virginia without either of our permission, I think she should have both a general doctor for non-female stuff and an OBGYN for female stuff."

There was a pause. "That's a good idea."

"Is there anything else I need to know about Caitie?" Jenny asked, "Any trouble in school?"

"No trouble in school, but there's something I've noticed as I got to know her."

"What's that?"

"She's pretty damn near perfect."

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